ICE has wasted tens of millions of dollars with 'uninformed' detention plans, GAO finds

Congressional investigators found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has wasted tens of millions of dollars on poorly planned efforts to expand detention capacity since Donald Trump took office in January 2025, and warned the losses will keep growing without better management. The Government Accountability Office, asked by congressional Democrats to investigate, said ICE still lacks a strategic plan for spending the $45 billion Congress allocated last year to expand detention capacity. The detained population rose from 39,000 in January 2025 to 67,000 by July 30, according to PBS NewsHour.

GAO detailed several costly missteps. The Department of Defense spent $2.85 million erecting tents for 5,000 people at Guantanamo Bay after the White House ordered the base used for immigration detention, but the tents never met detention standards and were removed before housing anyone. That mass-detention plan was ultimately deemed infeasible and abandoned. ICE separately paid $1.07 billion for 11 warehouses under a plan backed by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, then abandoned it amid public opposition before housing any detainee, leaving $20 million in unrecoverable costs on seven properties now being sold.

The Florida facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" operated for a year without ICE ever finalizing a contract with the state; the Department of Homeland Security instead reimbursed Florida through a $608 million FEMA grant at $249 per detainee daily, 171 percent above ICE's normal rate, before the site closed in June amid reports of substandard conditions.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →