DHS Awards Up to $7.3 Billion in Construction Contracts to Expand ICE Detention in Five States

DHS signed five Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) construction contracts worth up to $7.3 billion on Sunday, September 21, 2026, to expand ICE detention capacity on government-owned land in New York (Batavia, expanding the existing ICE detention center — $1.5B to Rapid Deployment Inc. of Alabama), Texas (El Paso, new capacity on government property — $2.2B to Rapid Deployment Inc.), Arizona (Florence, expanding the existing ICE detention center — $1.2B to GardaWorld Federal Services), Florida (Miami, new capacity at an unspecified site — $1.2B to GardaWorld Federal Services), and California (El Centro, a former ICE facility now used by the U.S. Marshals Service, which has not held ICE detainees since 2014 — $1.2B to Rudiarius Holdings Corp.). DHS separately announced it will also expand detention in Colorado, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The contracts are part of a roughly $10 billion detention-construction program funded by the $75 billion immigration-enforcement supplement in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act'; standardized secure-housing units of 26 steel cells are estimated to cost $24–42 million each, though DHS has not disclosed total bed counts or construction schedules, and no construction has begun pending task orders and further appropriations. GEO Group CEO George Zoley said the company currently manages 68,000 ICE detention beds nationwide and that ICE is aiming for roughly 100,000 operational beds.