Since January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying at least 11 massive facilities in eight states, public records show.
The acquisitions, which span from New Jersey to Utah, are part of the agency's $38.3 billion plan to overhaul its network of detention centers as it accelerates the Trump administration's mass deportation push.
It has said it plans to convert the vacant industrial warehouses, which were originally built for distribution and logistics, into detention centers capable of holding thousands of people.
Business Insider confirmed the 11 warehouse purchases through local deed searches and public records requests.
An analysis by real estate data company CoStar found that ICE paid premiums of 11% to 13% for the buildings. Sale prices ranged from $35 million for a 261,000-square-foot warehouse in San Antonio to $145 million for an 833,000- square-foot warehouse in Salt Lake City.
ICE paid $129 million to PNK Group USA for a warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia. PNK bought the land in 2024 for $29.4 million, built the warehouse the following year, and sold it to ICE in February.
PNK is owned by Andrey Sharkov, a former Russian national who says he has renounced his citizenship, according to court documents. PNK Group USA started as the US arm of a Russian industrial developer; Sharkov says the US operation severed ties with Russia in 2023.
A congressional group led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Jamie Raskin sent a series of questions to Sharkov this week about the transaction. Their probe is looking into government contractors, real estate firms, and property owners who may have "corruptly profited" from sales to ICE, according to a press release.
Other sellers were primarily large real estate firms, including The Carlyle Group and Dalfen Industrial, which has a partnership with Goldman Sachs.
Nearly every seller purchased the land and built the warehouses within the last five years, with the intention of flipping or leasing them to an e-commerce or logistics company, according to Business Insider's review of public records, news reports, press releases, and commercial real estate listings.
In February, Blue Owl sold a Tremont, Pennsylvania, facility to ICE for $119 million. A private credit firm that has drawn scrutiny for its participation in the AI data center boom, Blue Owl purchased the warehouse, a former Big Lots distribution center, for $129.5 million from the retailer in 2020. It was leasing it back to Big Lots when the company went bankrupt four years later.
The Salt Lake City warehouse, which ICE told city officials could hold up to 10,000 people at a time, is located in a heavily industrialized area near Salt Lake City International Airport and distribution centers for retailers like Amazon and Sephora.
The funds for the acquisitions, which the White House said will support a daily detention capacity of "at least 100,000 aliens," are coming from federal tax dollars allocated in last summer's Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Buying buildings is a new strategy for ICE, which has historically leased its detention facilities from private prison firms. This new approach is meant to rapidly add more beds and streamline the agency's deportation operations, according to an agency document released by New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
The document says ICE believes the renovation of "non-traditional" facilities will allow it to quickly build new detention centers that are customized to the agency's needs.
News reports this week suggest that ICE's plans for its detention centers will be paused while new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullins reviews former Secretary Kristi Noem's policies after she was removed from her post last month.
ICE previously said it plans to acquire 24 properties — a mix of 16 regional processing centers, meant to house up to 1,500 people for up to a week at a time, and eight "large-scale" detention centers meant to hold 7,000 to 10,000 people for one to two months.
The agency said it aimed to have the facilities operational by the end of the year.
ICE's warehouse plans have faced public pushback in some communities, leading some warehouse owners in other locations to cancel previously planned sales to the agency.
In Merrillville, Indiana, the owner of a warehouse thought to be under consideration for sale to ICE issued a public letter stating that it was not in talks with the government.
At a recent protest outside a warehouse in Salt Lake City, a man was arrested on a charge of property damage after police found him inside the building, throwing rocks at windows.
