Why It Matters

Between January and April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement also known as ICE purchased 11 warehouses with the intent of renovating them to stash what the agency predicted would be an influx of detainees. The cost came in at about $1.07 billion. By June, ICE was working to sell seven of them, having never housed a single detainee in any of the facilities.

This time span coincided with the firing of former DHS head Kristi Noem, and the appointment of Markwayne Mullin being sworn in on March 24th.

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published Sept. 24 examined ICE's spending over recent months. According to the report, ICE reported spending more than $20 million on nonrecoverable costs, such as zoning assessments and security, on the warehouses it intends to sell, meaning that money cannot be recovered regardless of the outcome of any sale.

At Guantánamo Bay, ICE spent approximately $43 million from the start of fiscal year 2025 through June 30 to detain migrants, but nearly $3 million was spent erecting tents that were never used and an average daily detainee population of 16 people in fiscal year 2026. According to news reports citing the Government Accountability Office (GAO), "changing plans and high operating costs have resulted in incurring unnecessary costs, which resulted in waste at Guantanamo Bay."

The Big Picture

A January 2025 Executive Order directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain individuals apprehended for violations of immigration law, to the extent permitted by law, and to allocate all available resources toward ICE detention purposes, setting off the multibillion-dollar expansion the GAO examined. Funding provided through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was projected to support the addition of approximately 80,000 detention beds, and ICE's data indicate the number of authorized ICE detention facilities roughly doubled during this period.

Despite the scale of that investment, the GAO found that ICE has not developed consistent goals or objectives for the size and characteristics of its detention bed space, and has not assessed the risks and benefits of using facilities with high operating costs compared to less costly options in its traditional detention portfolio. ICE pursued the warehouse purchases, the Guantánamo tent construction, and the Alligator Alcatraz arrangement without developing a comprehensive strategic plan that included consistent goals, objectives, or an assessment of the risks and benefits of using facilities with high operating costs compared to less costly options in ICE's traditional detention portfolio.

The Bottom Line

The GAO made one recommendation: that the head of ICE develop a comprehensive strategic plan to guide its detention expansion efforts, including goals, activities, and resource needs. The GAO noted the plan "could help ICE better manage its multibillion-dollar detention expansion efforts and reduce waste associated with scaling back inefficient detention initiatives."

DHS agreed with the recommendation and stated that ICE will develop such a plan. ICE does not expect to complete the strategic plan until Aug. 31, 2027.

Readers can track the recommendation's status and related legislative activity at Legis1.com.

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