Watchdog finds ICE wasted millions in its detention build-out
A Government Accountability Office report says the agency spent without a strategic plan, including on tents and warehouses that went unused.
Assembled by Claude from 8 sources at 8 outlets · Sunday, September 27, 2026, Morning edition, 10:41 AM EDT · no human byline
What happened
ICE has received more than $75 billion to expand operations since President Trump returned to office, and wasted millions on scaled-back and mismanaged projects, a new GAO report found axios.com. The report found that the agency invested billions in six new initiatives without conducting necessary analyses axios.com. In rushing to execute the mass deportation agenda, it failed to properly develop a strategic plan axios.com.
In the absence of a comprehensive strategic plan to guide detention expansion, the report concluded, ICE "has wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives" and lacks important information axios.com. Spending included unused tents and warehouses that were later abandoned whas11.com. Other accounts put the waste in the tens of millions on what they described as uninformed detention projects coppercourier.comhaitiantimes.com. The report accuses the administration of wasting federal dollars amid its efforts to expand ICE detention facilities tag24.com. Coverage of the report ranged from unused tents and warehouses whas11.com to a broader charge of uninformed project selection coppercourier.com.
The scale of the programme
One scrapped plan, backed by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to increase detention capacity, carried a figure of $1.07 billion before it was dropped amid public opposition pressreader.com. Pressure to expand capacity came from the department's own leadership haitiantimes.com. The plan was scrapped amid public opposition rather than on cost grounds pressreader.com.
Around 65,000 people are currently in ICE detention, and around 70% of them have no criminal conviction npr.org. The agency is now looking at mobile detention npr.org. On the contracting side, GEO Group recently secured over $7 billion in construction contracts from the Department of Homeland Security to expand immigration detention simplywall.st.
What to watch
The immediate question for appropriators is whether further detention funding is conditioned on the strategic plan the GAO says is missing axios.com. The report's finding is procedural rather than criminal: the agency spent before it analysed, according to the watchdog axios.com.
The market link runs through the contractors. Investor reaction to the DHS awards has already been the subject of analysis simplywall.st. Two variables sit underneath that. The detained population, currently around 65,000, drives per-bed revenue npr.org. And the durability of large construction awards is now exposed to a federal watchdog finding that the expansion they serve was uninformed and, in places, unused simplywall.stcoppercourier.comwhas11.com. A scrapped $1.07 billion plan is the precedent for how quickly capacity projects can be dropped under public pressure pressreader.com.
Sources
- axios.com: ICE wasted millions in rush to expand detention, government watchdog finds (2026-09-25)
- whas11.com: GAO: Millions wasted on unused ICE detention facilities | whas11.com (2026-09-26)
- coppercourier.com: ICE is wasting tens of millions of dollars on 'uninformed' detention projects, report finds (2026-09-26)
- tag24.com: Trump admin. reportedly wasted millions in federal dollars amid ICE facility expansions (2026-09-25)
- haitiantimes.com: ICE is wasting tens of millions of dollars on 'uninformed' detention projects, report finds (2026-09-26)
- pressreader.com: Watchdog: ICE wasting millions on projects | Santa Fe New Mexican | PressReader (2026-09-26)
- npr.org: Immigration briefing: ICE eyes mobile detention as Texas agent shooting sparks outcry (2026-09-26)
- simplywall.st: How Investors Are Reacting To GEO Group (GEO) $7b DHS Detention Contracts (2026-09-26)