ICE Weighs Selling 11 Detention Warehouses and Planes as DHS Retreats From 100,000-Bed Goal
Updated
Updated · NBC News · May 30
ICE Weighs Selling 11 Detention Warehouses and Planes as DHS Retreats From 100,000-Bed Goal
3 articles · Updated · NBC News · May 30
Several of ICE’s 11 recently bought warehouses—some designed to hold up to 8,000 immigrants each—have been identified for possible sale, though none has been listed and no final decision has been made.
More than $38 billion in warehouse purchases and several aircraft, including a Boeing 737 Max 8, are under review as Secretary Markwayne Mullin reshapes DHS around efficiency, taxpayer stewardship and lower detention needs.
The reassessment marks a sharp turn from former Secretary Kristi Noem’s push to build capacity to detain 100,000 immigrants at once for Trump’s mass-deportation agenda; officials now say ICE no longer needs that scale.
Those assets had already drawn protests, Republican pushback and lawsuits, including a Georgia case alleging ICE paid more than five times a warehouse’s assessed value, while DHS’s inspector general is auditing whether the expansion was cost-effective.
Is selling off detention centers a true policy reversal or just a quieter approach to immigration enforcement?
What will investigations reveal about the billion-dollar cost and alleged corruption behind the abandoned mega-detention centers?