REPORT: ICE Is Quickly And Quietly Opening More Than 150 New Offices
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is quietly expanding its footprint across the country, opening or planning more than 150 new office locations to support its deportation campaign.
An “ICE surge team” at the General Services Administration is helping the federal agency rapidly open locations to support the ICE departments that are leading the roving approach to immigration enforcement the White House has implemented across the country, a Wired investigation found.
ICE worked with the GSA to quietly secure the space without going through the typical open bidding process by citing national security concerns and the “critical space needs” that allow for a departure from the rules with “unusual and compelling urgency justification.”
The campaign began in September. An internal training document reviewed by Wired says the “trigger event” for the hiring push included the White House’s effort to hire 13,000 new ICE employees and the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Republicans’ signature tax and policy package.
Reports first emerged in September that ICE aimed to open around 300 new locations across the U.S. as quickly as possible. The leases would go ahead despite a January order telling the GSA to pause most acquisitions, deliveries and modifications.
“An exception to the acquisition pause has been approved for all actions supporting the ICE hiring surge, regardless of dollar value,” a GSA commissioner wrote in a Sept. 25 internal email exchange reviewed by Wired.
The creation of the internal GSA team dedicated to helping ICE’s efforts was first reported in September.
By Sept. 29, the GSA had already awarded its first leases. Another 19 projects had won awards by early November. The GSA has identified at least 54 specific locations for ICE offices and has plans for more than 100 more that Wired didn’t view an address for.
“GSA is following all lease procurement procedures in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations,” Marianne Copenhaver, GSA associate administrator for communications, said in a statement to Bisnow.
The office expansions are supporting the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations division, tasked with immigration enforcement activities like those in Minneapolis, and the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, the agency’s legal arm.
Many of the offices are slated to open near schools, houses of worship, courthouses and other types of properties where immigration enforcement actions have led to protests. Other properties are near existing ICE offices or detention facilities.
ICE’s expansion has thus far been concentrated in Texas, where at least nine leasing projects are underway, New York and California. In January, the Trump administration said California and New York were next in line for the type of investigation that eventually led to ICE’s deployment in Minneapolis.
ICE is also quietly lining up developers for as much as $10B in immigration-related construction as it faces pushback from cities across the country where the agency is planning to lease or buy warehouses for new detention centers.
The agency spent $200M this month on properties in Pennsylvania, including one owned by a Blue Owl Capital affiliate, to expand its detention footprint. It also paid $70M for a property developed by Rockefeller Group in Surprise, Arizona.
