ICE rushed to buy 11 warehouses for detention. Now it’s trying to sell 7 of them

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Thursday, September 24, 2026

ICE’s aim to quickly build its detention capacity has wasted millions of dollars as the Trump administration took a spend-first, ask-questions-later approach, the government’s top watchdog said in a withering new audit Thursday.

The attempt to buy and convert warehouses to migrant detention centers has collapsed, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement now seeking to sell seven of the 11 properties it rushed to buy.

But even if the agency can sell, it’s already sunk $20 million that can’t be recovered, such as in zoning work, utilities and security, according to the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative force.

The idea to set up tent detention camps at U.S. military bases also faltered, but not before ICE blew millions, such as paying for meals it never needed.

ICE and the Defense Department also paid more than $100 million to house migrants on the base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even though the average daily population this year has been just 16 detainees.

All told, of the six ideas that ICE had to quickly expand its detention space, it’s retreated on four of them, the GAO said.

“In the absence of a comprehensive strategic plan to guide detention expansion, ICE has wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives and lacks important information about the long-term affordability of its investments,” Heather MacLeod, director of the GAO’s homeland security and justice division, said in the report.

ICE is flush with a $45 billion chunk of cash earmarked for detention in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill last year, plus billions from this year’s reconciliation law.

The agency had set a goal of going from fewer than 40,000 migrants in detention at the end of the Biden administration to about 100,000 under Mr. Trump.

Detaining migrants is a crucial part of being able to deport them. If they’re released, their cases drag on for years on the “nondetained docket,” and it’s much tougher to get them to leave if they ultimately lose their cases.

If they’re on the “detained docket,” their cases can be completed in a matter of weeks, and they can be put on planes as soon as their travel documents are secured and a flight is available.

Mr. Trump on Inauguration Day in 2025 issued an executive order directing ICE to expand its capacity, and Congress delivered the money.

The four ideas ICE came up with but has already scaled back were using Guantanamo, using domestic bases, buying the warehouses and having states erect temporary facilities such as Florida’s now-shuttered Alligator Alcatraz.

In Florida, ICE paid $249 per migrant per day — more than 2 1/2 times the $92 ICE spent on the average bed in 2026.

Two other ideas are still moving forward at pace.

One is renting space from the federal Bureau of Prisons, where ICE is paying $182 per migrant per day, or double the $92 average.

The other is buying out existing facilities where ICE had rented space.

ICE in July bought two facilities for $1.5 billion. The GAO said those purchases could result in waste because ICE hasn’t calculated the long-term costs of ownership.

The larger problem is that ICE lacked a strategic plan for its approach to detention, the GAO said.

ICE’s audit liaison, David E. Schmitt, in an official response to the GAO audit, agreed that the agency needs a strategic plan. He said it should be done by the end of next summer.

“Securing the nation’s borders and safeguarding the integrity of the immigration system is ICE’s primary focus and ICE plans to continue to meet the growing demand for bed space by streamlining the detention and removal process and focusing on non-traditional facilities built specifically to support ICE’s needs,” he said.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who requested the GAO audit, said it exposed a “cavalier and wasteful” approach to taxpayers’ money by ICE.

“Remember when Donald Trump promised to get rid of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ in Washington? Well, GAO now has exposed a shocking pattern of waste within the administration’s unconscionable mass deportation campaign,” Mr. Durbin said.