ICE wasted $20m on empty warehouses and unused Guantánamo tents, watchdog tells Congress

From the Newshound archive · first published 24 September 2026 · last updated 25 September 2026.

A damning US Government Accountability Office report found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement squandered tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on detention projects that never housed a single migrant, with auditors warning the waste will continue because the agency still has no strategic plan. ICE spent $1.07 billion buying 11 warehouses only to offload most of them, burning through more than $20m in unrecoverable zoning and utilities costs in the process. Congress handed ICE an unprecedented $45 billion for detention expansion under the One Big Beautiful Bill, and the GAO warns the agency is ploughing ahead with new initiatives just as recklessly.

ICE also spent nearly $3m erecting tents at Guantánamo Bay that were never used.

The detainee population has nearly doubled, rising from 39,000 in January 2025 to 67,000 by July, despite the chaos.

'ICE will likely continue to make uninformed decisions and risk further inefficiency,' the GAO warned, with a spending plan not due until August 2027.