The federal government spent more than $100 million to house migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — even though the facility held an average of just 16 detainees a day this year, according to a Government Accountability Office audit released Thursday.
The report, requested in part by Sen. Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took a spend-first, ask-questions-later approach as it rushed to expand detention space under President Trump. Of six expansion ideas ICE pursued, the agency has already abandoned four, including the Guantanamo plan, temporary camps at domestic military bases, warehouse purchases and state-run facilities such as Florida’s shuttered Alligator Alcatraz facility.
Heather MacLeod, who directs the GAO’s homeland security and justice division, said ICE “wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives” and lacks a strategic plan to guide the effort.
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Mr. Trump has pushed ICE to more than double its detention capacity, aiming for about 100,000 detained migrants. Congress has earmarked $45 billion for detention, plus additional billions under a 2026 law.
David E. Schmitt, ICE’s audit liaison, agreed the agency needs a strategic plan and said it would be finished by Aug. 31, 2027.
Mr. Durbin said the findings show a “cavalier and wasteful” approach to taxpayer money.
Read more:
• ICE rushed to buy 11 warehouses for detention. Now it’s trying to sell 7 of them
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