ICE Pauses $38.3B Warehouse Purchase Plan After Noem's Ouster
The Department of Homeland Security is holding off on advancing its $38.3B plan to acquire and retrofit industrial warehouses into detention centers for tens of thousands of immigrants across the country.
DHS has already spent nearly $1.1B on 11 warehouses, according to a Bisnow analysis of deed records and public reports.
The department plans to move forward with redeveloping the warehouses it has already acquired into detention facilities, two anonymous senior DHS officials told NBC News, which first reported the purchasing pause.
The move comes just one week after the White House swore in former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the department’s new secretary to replace Noem, whom President Donald Trump fired at the beginning of March.
Amid the transition of power, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari is investigating Noem and her close adviser, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, over how they handled federal contracts, The New York Times reported.
“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals,” a DHS spokesperson told NBC News.
DHS didn't immediately respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to complete the expansion of its detention capacity to 92,600 beds by the end of November, but it has purchased less than half of its planned footprint to date.
In DHS documents published in February by Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office, the federal government detailed its plans to acquire eight large-scale warehouses and convert them into detention “mega-centers,” which would serve as primary locations for deportations, designed to house up to 10,000 people for up to two months at a time.
The plan, dubbed the ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative, also called for the acquisition of 16 processing facilities designed to house 1,000 to 1,500 detainees for up to seven days at a time and eight “turnkey” facilities that are already operating as detention centers.
While the memos shared were detailing its national expansion plan, it was specifically geared toward purchasing and converting a Merrimack, New Hampshire, warehouse owned by Trammell Crow. ICE didn’t move forward with the deal.
The agency has already purchased 11 industrial properties in eight states, paying between $34.7M and $145.4M each for empty buildings designed largely for package distribution.
ICE paid an 11% to 13% premium for these properties compared to market prices, according to a CoStar News analysis. Some properties traded for 30% more than neighboring deals.
PCCP LLC received $87.4M for a warehouse it sold to DHS in February, 33% more than it paid in 2024.
Local outrage and bipartisan pushback scuttled at least eight other rumored or reported deals, Bisnow previously reported. And ICE has been barred by a federal judge from proceeding with the conversion of a Maryland warehouse it bought for $102M in January.
The state's attorney general, Anthony Brown, sued DHS in February, claiming the agency didn't adhere to a mandatory review process before purchasing the 826K SF property.
Officials and attorneys in other locales are testing ways to legally push back by passing emergency moratoriums and amending zoning codes over concerns that the community doesn't have the infrastructure to handle large-scale detention centers.
While it is unclear if the multibillion-dollar plan will change moving forward under the new leadership, Mullin said at his confirmation hearing that he planned to work more openly with municipalities, NBC News reported.
“Hopefully it means a more thoughtful and methodical approach,” Glenn Williamson, a professor at Georgetown University and director of its master's in real estate program, said in a text message in response to the pause of warehouse purchases.
“Could also be that prices paid or conflicts identified raised red flags. Those goals to open new detention centers at lightening speed were likely divorced from any normal planning and construction benchmarks.”
