GAO Finds ICE Wasted Tens of Millions on Botched Detention Expansion

A Government Accountability Office report released September 24, 2026 found ICE and other agencies wasted tens of millions of dollars pursuing "ill-conceived" plans to rapidly expand detention capacity since January 2025, with the total likely to keep rising. Investigators, acting at congressional Democrats' request, cited nearly $3 million spent erecting tents at Guantánamo Bay that were never used before the plan was scrapped as infeasible, $20 million maintaining seven of 11 warehouses ICE bought for $1.07 billion and is now selling without ever housing a detainee, and a $608 million FEMA grant reimbursing Florida for 'Alligator Alcatraz' at $249 per detainee per day — 171% above ICE's normal rate.

Congress gave ICE an unprecedented $45 billion for detention expansion in the One Big Beautiful Bill, but GAO found the agency still lacks a comprehensive strategic plan for spending it, even as its detained population grew from 39,000 in January 2025 to 67,000 by July 2026. DHS told investigators it would not have a guiding plan ready until August 2027, which GAO warned may be too late.

DHS and ICE offered no comment. The report recommends ICE adopt standard program- and project-management practices; no legislative or enforcement action has yet followed.