Waste of the Day: No ICE Plan For Budget Boost

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “urgently” needs to “avoid further waste of taxpayer dollars” resulting from misguided purchases, according to a Sept. 24 report by the Government Accountability Office. ICE never developed a plan for spending the huge funding boost it received last year, and blew billions of dollars on initiatives that were later scaled back or abandoned entirely.

ICE got funding through 2029. What happened to their warehouse detention center plan?

Key facts: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 gave ICE $45 billion to use for detention efforts by 2029, more than doubling its previous budget.

In early 2026, ICE spent more than $1 billion to buy 11 factory warehouses that would be converted into detention centers. The plan was mostly scrapped this June. Critics objected to the allegedly unsanitary and inhumane conditions detainees could face, and the fact that ICE had ignored required environmental reviews.

ICE now plans to sell seven of the warehouses, possibly at a loss, despite spending an unrecoverable $20.5 million on their utilities, security, zoning assessments and more.

Another two of the warehouses in Arizona and Maryland cost an additional $426 million to renovate into detention centers. ICE says it has no plans to sell them, but that may be unavoidable. The attorneys general from both states are suing to stop the centers from opening.

ICE also spent $1.5 billion to buy two detention centers in Louisiana and Texas that the agency had previously been renting. ICE never evaluated whether buying the centers instead of renting them would actually save money, according to the GAO.

The Gitmo plan

There was also wasted money following a January 2025 memo in which President Trump said noncitizen detainees should be held at Guantanamo Bay. ICE and the Department of Defense spent $111 million preparing the base to hold 30,000 detainees before realizing the plan was unrealistic. The base was too far away from the U.S. mainland, and the water supply was unreliable. Only 16 noncitizens are at Guantanamo Bay on an average day, according to the GAO.

The GAO also criticized the opening of the Florida Soft-Sided Facility, which state officials called “Alligator Alcatraz.” The State of Florida opened the detention center without permission from ICE and without following federal contracting procedures. It cost $249 per day to detain a noncitizen at Alligator Alcatraz, almost triple the amount at an average ICE facility.

Alligator Alcatraz shut down this June following reports of inhumane conditions. The federal government agreed to reimburse Florida for all its costs.

Summary: President Trump’s enormous funding boost for ICE will not have its intended impact if it is spent without careful safeguards and proper planning.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.