A government watchdog just confirmed what anyone paying attention already suspected: ICE flushed millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain in a panicked rush to lock up detention space, and private contractors walked away with the cash. The Government Accountability Office found the agency wasted at least $20 million buying warehouses it now wants to dump, with potentially more losses on the way, according to CBS News. But the bigger scandal isn't the sloppy spending — it's the bipartisan failure to enforce the border that made the emergency buildup necessary in the first place.

Follow the Money

In a single day last January, ICE spent more than on any other day during Trump's presidency. The agency shoved billions into escrow with Chicago Title Insurance to snap up detention facilities. It burned $1.07 billion on 11 warehouses meant to become detention megacenters. Seven of those warehouses are now marked for sale. The rest of the money just sat with Chicago Title for months after ICE scrapped the warehouse scheme.

Then came the real payout. In July and August, ICE moved $2.2 billion from Chicago Title to purchase four detention facilities from CoreCivic — the private prison giant that still gets paid separately to operate them. That's right: ICE bought the buildings, and CoreCivic keeps the management contracts. The GAO says ICE failed to account for long-term costs and lost $20 million in unrecoverable costs on the abandoned warehouses. Even more could vanish if those properties sell below purchase price.

Another $1.55 billion still sits with Chicago Title. And just this week, CBS News reports, ICE handed out contracts that could hit a combined $10 billion for new facility construction.

No Plan, No Oversight, No Surprise

GAO Homeland Security and Justice director Heather MacLeod put it plainly: "We just saw a real lack of planning overall. The lack of planning has really led to stops and starts which have ultimately resulted in waste." ICE told the watchdog it would produce a strategic plan — by August 31, 2027. The GAO said that isn't soon enough.

Congress greased the skids. The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" funneled $75 billion to ICE, including $45 billion specifically for detention expansion. ICE spending nearly doubled this year — $19 billion from October through July, up from $11 billion the previous full fiscal year. Kevin McNellis, a former Congressional Budget Office analyst, noted that appropriating funds outside the normal process stripped away the usual guardrails, leading to a breakdown in oversight.

The Open Border That Built the Boom

None of this spending spree happens if Washington enforces the border in the first place. Both parties had years to lock it down. Instead, they let crossings surge, let fentanyl flood in, and let cartel operations expand — then scrambled to throw billions at the back end of the problem. CoreCivic and Chicago Title didn't create the crisis, but they sure profited from Washington's refusal to prevent it. A DHS spokesperson told CBS News that ICE is "working at turbo speed" on "cost-effective and innovative ways" to carry out mass deportations. Turbo speed with a blank check is how you get $20 million in dead warehouse purchases and counting.

The question that won't get answered in any hearing: how much of this spending actually secures the border, and how much just enriches the contractor class while communities along the frontier keep paying the real price?