After pivoting away from warehouse acquisitions, federal officials have earmarked billions to potentially build new immigrant detention facilities.
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The Department of Homeland Security awarded five construction contracts that could be worth up to $7.3B combined to three firms, watchdog group Project Salt Box reported.
The contracts give the department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the option to deploy the funding across five government-owned sites in New York, Texas, Arizona, Florida and California. DHS can tap the construction firms for these projects as needed over the next five years, according to Project Salt Box.
The largest contract – $2.2B for the construction of a detention facility in El Paso, Texas – went to Alabama-based Rapid Deployment Inc. The firm also won a $1.5B contract for a facility in Batavia, New York.
A U.S. affiliate of Montreal-based GardaWorld was tapped for projects in Miami and Florence, Arizona, which are reportedly each worth $1.2B.
Rudiarius Holdings Corp., a Wyoming-based company with ties to Boston’s Rise Construction Management, reached a $1.2B deal to build a facility in El Centro, California, as part of the initiative.
Rapid Deployment didn't respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment, and Rudiarius couldn’t be reached. GardaWorld directed inquiries to DHS, which didn’t immediately respond.
The ground-up construction plans represent a strategic shift for ICE. It had previously been focused on buying and converting existing warehouses into detention facilities after the agency received $45B in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act as part of the Trump administration's ramped-up immigration enforcement efforts.
ICE spent more than $1B on 11 vacant properties between December 2025 and April 2026 and shelled out an 11% to 13% premium compared to market prices.
The agency reassessed that strategy when DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over from Kristi Noem in March. As ICE reportedly sought to sell seven of the warehouses it has purchased, it has pivoted toward private prison operators.
DHS spent $2.2B acquiring four private prison facilities in California, Minnesota and Kansas from CoreCivic last month. It expects to keep the company on as an operator. DHS also agreed to pay CoreCivic and Geo Group $240M per year to reactivate defunct facilities.
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