US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies have wasted tens of millions of dollars pursuing plans to rapidly increase detention capacity, congressional investigators warned on Thursday. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated that the total amount of wasted funds is likely to rise due to ongoing mismanagement.
The GAO documented costly problems in several initiatives undertaken by ICE since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. At that time, Trump ordered the mass arrest and deportation of individuals his administration deemed should be removed from the country.
Among the documented misspending was nearly $3 million spent on tents at the Guantánamo Bay US naval base in Cuba that were never used. Additionally, $20 million was spent to maintain purchased warehouses that are now being sold without having housed a single detainee. Excessive rates were also paid to hold detainees at the now-closed Florida facility, Alligator Alcatraz.
Congress provided ICE with $45 billion last year to expand detention capacity as part of the Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. However, the GAO report warned that the agency lacks a comprehensive strategic plan for how to spend these funds wisely. The detainee population has grown from 39,000 in January 2025 to 67,000 as of July 30.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, informed the GAO that it would develop a plan to guide its detention expansion by August 31, 2027. However, the report suggested this might be too late to prevent further waste.