GAO: ICE Spent Millions on Detention Expansion With Inadequate Oversight

A federal watchdog finding that a major enforcement agency misallocated public funds raises questions about contracting controls that Congress has not yet addressed through formal legislation.

The Government Accountability Office has determined that Immigration and Customs Enforcement wasted millions of dollars in taxpayer funds during a rapid expansion of its immigration detention capacity, according to a GAO report covered by CBS News on September 25, 2026. The GAO is the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, and its findings carry formal standing as oversight conclusions.

The GAO report did not assign a single consolidated dollar figure in the CBS News summary, but it described the waste as occurring across multiple components of the detention expansion effort. The full GAO report, which would contain line-item breakdowns by contract and facility, is the document that would specify exact amounts. As of publication, the complete report had not been linked in publicly available coverage.

ICE detention capacity has been a contested budget item for multiple administrations. Congress appropriates ICE detention funding annually through the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. In fiscal year 2025, the DHS appropriations act included approximately $3.4 billion for ICE detention operations, according to the Congressional Budget Office's summary of that legislation. The current expansion effort described in the GAO report appears to involve spending above baseline levels, though the precise authorization vehicle is not identified in available coverage.

The GAO has audited ICE detention spending in prior cycles. A 2020 GAO report, GAO-20-331, found that ICE did not consistently follow its own policies when awarding contracts for detention facilities, including cases where required cost analyses were incomplete or absent. The current findings suggest similar procedural gaps persisted or recurred under accelerated procurement timelines.

Rapid expansion of government detention capacity typically creates contracting risk because agencies must award contracts quickly, sometimes bypassing competitive bidding through sole-source or emergency procurement authorities. Federal acquisition regulations permit expedited contracting under specific conditions, but the GAO's mandate includes verifying that those conditions were legitimately invoked and that cost controls remained in place.

ICE operates detention facilities through a mix of direct federal ownership, intergovernmental service agreements with local jails, and contracts with private detention operators. The largest private operators holding ICE contracts include GEO Group and CoreCivic, both of which have publicly filed contracts visible through USASpending.gov. Which contract category or categories the GAO flagged is not specified in available coverage.

Congressional oversight of ICE detention spending runs through the Senate and House Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittees. Neither subcommittee had scheduled a public hearing on the GAO findings as of the publication of this article, based on publicly posted committee calendars on senate.gov and appropriations.house.gov.

The GAO issues recommendations alongside its findings. Agencies are required to respond formally to GAO recommendations within 60 days of a report's issuance, and GAO tracks compliance publicly through its recommendations database at gao.gov. Whether ICE has formally responded to the recommendations in this report is unknown, as the full report had not been publicly linked as of press time.

Waste findings by the GAO do not automatically trigger clawbacks or contract terminations. Remediation typically requires either voluntary agency action, a congressional directive embedded in subsequent appropriations legislation, or referral to the DHS Inspector General for further investigation. The DHS IG operates independently of both ICE and the GAO.

What remains unknown includes the total dollar amount the GAO quantified as wasted, the specific contracts or facility types where the waste occurred, whether any contracting officers have been referred for administrative review, and whether any funds are recoverable. The full GAO report, identified by its report number when released, would answer each of those questions. The DHS Office of Inspector General's active investigation log, published quarterly on oversight.gov, would indicate whether a parallel inquiry is underway.