White House Is Lining Up Developers For Up To $10B In Immigration Facility Construction

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is laying the groundwork for as many as 10 large development projects with a price tag as high as $10B.

The contract request from the Department of Homeland Security aims to pre-approve a stable of developers ready to build or refurbish expansive real estate projects. The request doesn’t explicitly mention detention centers and wouldn’t be used for Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. 

Bidders on the contract are required to have built at least two federal properties in the past 15 years worth at least $25M each, be able to secure top secret security clearances from the government and be capable of financing up to $2B worth of corporate bonds for project construction. 

The contract was first posted to the government’s clearinghouse for private sector work on Dec. 17 and has a Friday deadline for the first phase of applications. A scope of work associated with the contract says bidders will “provide new facilities and large renovations to existing facilities,” with new turnkey construction being the priority. 

The RFP specifies that some of the development projects are related to funding passed through the One Big Beautiful Bill, the White House’s signature tax and policy package that included $170B in funding for immigration enforcement, including $45B earmarked for the construction of new detainment facilities, according to the National Immigration Law Center. 

CBP operates detention centers where it processes people for deportation, but the DHS and CBP declined to confirm if this funding will be directed toward building out its detainment capacity. The only types of facilities explicitly mentioned in documents accompanying the contract are Border Patrol stations and checkpoints and “Air and Marine Facilities,” which are listed as potential examples but not exclusive project types.  

The open proposal is an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity government contract, an open-ended request that effectively asks companies to request to be pre-cleared to bid on specific projects in the future.

“Firms get awarded these contracts and then they're kept in a stable, and when the government needs them, they pull them out,” said Lucy Kitchin, the head of Transwestern’s Government Services advisory group in Washington, D.C.

Contractors approved during this initial phase will be the only firms that can bid on the projects announced under its scope.

The IDIQ bid structure gives CBP a way to modernize its footprint and respond more quickly to future demands without reopening politically charged debates for individual projects by avoiding the level of public oversight required in standard requests to build a new property or sign a new lease. 

“They may be getting creative in the application of this IDIQ because, typically, contracts to design and construct facilities like this are done individually,” said a consultant who helps private firms secure government contracts, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive nature of some projects.

The requirements to qualify to bid for projects that will be part of the IDIQ are so high that there’s a relatively small group of firms that could even bid, the government contract consultant added. 

“There are very few vendors who probably can do this,” they said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has emphasized tougher enforcement and border security since reentering the White House in 2025 and is reportedly planning a massive expansion of the country’s immigrant detention network. The Washington Post reported in December on a draft proposal that would streamline detention facilities and funnel immigrants into one of seven large-scale facilities that the government is considering developing inside industrial warehouses. 

Plans for massive new detention campuses have been under consideration since at least November. 

The draft solicitation reviewed by the Post, which has not been posted publicly, would create new detention facilities capable of holding 5,000 to 10,000 immigrants in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. It was set to be distributed to private detention companies for feedback near the end of last year, the Post reported.   

In an emailed statement to Bisnow, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin stressed that the planned facilities are not warehouses but are instead detention facilities. She didn’t respond when asked if the IDIQ was meant to fund their construction. 

“DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe. It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space,” McLaughlin said. 

She declined to discuss specifics but said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is “willing to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history.”

The solicitation comes as the DHS and CBP are also advancing large, project-specific border barrier contracts, including recent multibillion-dollar awards for so-called Smart Wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, which the DHS announced separately on Wednesday.