Federal real estate acquisition experts said DHS may be paying a high price to force developers and commercial landlords to sell properties despite local opposition.
DHS purchases Berks County warehouse to use as ICE detention center
The Trump administration purchased a vacant warehouse in Berks County for $84 million to use as an immigration detention center.
Fox – Fox 29
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s rapid efforts to convert commercial warehouses into detention centers has sparked another controversy: a high price tag.
The effort has included a parade of warehouse purchases, with the government paying tens of millions of dollars repeatedly above documented appraised values and recent sale prices. In a competitive real estate market, the prices represent “fair market value,” the Department of Homeland Security said.
On March 3, Sen. Cory Booker criticized Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem during a hearing on Capitol Hill, accusing the department of supporting “an incredible for-profit corporate empire that is making profits like we’ve never seen before.”
“You paid $129.3 million for a facility in my state and it was appraised at less than half that, at $62 million,” Booker told Noem. Noem was later ousted by President Donald Trump. “To work for a president who says he’s a great business partner…I can’t believe he thinks you’re a great business partner.”
Meanwhile, in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, DHS paid $87.4 million to buy a warehouse that was sold in 2024 for $57.5 million, public records show.
“These prices are pretty surprising,” said Rice University professor Troy Schaum, an expert on commercial and institutional real estate development, adding that there could be many explanations for the price spike.
Schaum said valuations used for tax purposes almost always lag true market value. And even in states like Georgia that need assessments to keep up with the market, high demand for data centers and other emerging technologies and rising prices for commercial space can make doing so difficult.
In February, DHS purchased a vacant warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, for $128.5 million. The current value of the property is $29.7 million, according to the Walton County Tax Assessor’s website. In Oakwood, Ga., the government paid $68 million for a warehouse and surrounding land, with a combined assessed value of $7.1 million in 2025, according to Hall County records.
ICE defended the purchases in a statement, saying DHS was paying “fair market value for these properties.”
“For each site, an evaluation report will be prepared in accordance with the Department of Justice’s Uniform Evaluation Standards for Federal Land Acquisition Standards,” the agency said. “They are independently reviewed and approved by a government appraiser to establish the fair market value of the property and serve as the basis for the purchase price of the property.”
Federal valuations are not made public, and critics rely on state tax records, recent sales prices and other data to approximate the property’s value.
The warehouse spending expansion is being funded by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act, which set aside $38.3 billion to increase ICE’s detention capacity. To accomplish this, the agency will begin acquiring commercial warehouses and converting them into vast detention facilities, some of which will hold up to 10,000 undocumented immigrants scheduled for deportation.
The effort has drawn backlash from officials in both parties, who have criticized ICE for failing to notify communities of the plan and voiced concerns that the facility could overwhelm local infrastructure, especially in rural areas.
Federal real estate acquisition experts said DHS may be paying a high price to force developers and commercial landlords to sell properties despite local opposition. They also pointed out that government agencies now have billions of dollars at their disposal to purchase real estate.
“They have money to spend,” said Rick Hsu, a law professor at the University of North Carolina and an expert on immigration and local government. “When you double or triple your budget, there is an expected spike in spending.”
Hsu also said DHS’ actions appear to depart from standard procedures for federal land acquisitions, which typically involve local input, extensive vetting processes, and bidding procedures. ICE’s efforts have also been marked by a series of errors, resulting in ICE retracting statements regarding several proposed facilities.
“The scale of this particular effort is quite large and seems quite rushed,” said Sarah Bronin, a law professor at George Washington University and an expert on real estate land use and zoning.
Why is ICE buying a warehouse?
DHS is purchasing commercial space as part of an effort to increase ICE immigration detention space by 92,600 beds, according to planning documents reviewed by USA TODAY. Officials aim to have all 24 proposed facilities online by October, according to internal documents.
As of early March, the government had purchased at least 10 warehouses and was considering at least two more, according to a USA TODAY analysis and the Department of Homeland Security. Local backlash caused at least 11 additional deals to collapse, including some after the government paid tens of millions of dollars for commercial space.
Resistance has been consistent in communities across the country, even as DHS has focused its efforts on targeting Republican districts for warehouse purchases.
Local, state and federal officials have expressed concerns about transparency and whether communities have the infrastructure to support what would be the nation’s largest immigrant detention center. Some officials and advocates have questioned whether warehouses built for commercial cargo can hold people, citing problems reported at detention centers built last year.
According to planning documents related to a proposed processing center in New Hampshire, ICE would spend $158 million to renovate the warehouse and add recreational areas, dormitories, courtrooms, a cafeteria, and even religious and medical facilities.
DHS says each detention facility meets federal standards and provides jobs to the surrounding community.
“These detention facilities will be highly structured detention facilities that meet standard detention standards,” ICE said in a statement, adding that “prior to purchase, the facilities undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to ensure they do not disrupt local utilities or infrastructure.”
The deal was completed with little attention locally.
Some experts say ICE and DHS’ procurement processes appear out of step with federal land acquisition procedures, which typically involve coordination with local authorities and extensive review processes.
“ICE is certainly not following normal procedures,” Su said, noting that the government often seeks to “get the best price” through bidding processes and exploring alternative locations.
Over the past few months, elected leaders, including Republicans, have said they only learned of the plan after the government finalized the real estate deal.
“There was no warning whatsoever,” Secretary Christian Leinbach said at a public meeting in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where DHS purchased a 500,000-square-foot warehouse, the size of eight football fields.
In New Jersey, where DHS purchased a 470,000-square-foot warehouse in Roxbury, the town’s all-Republican council voted unanimously to oppose the facility after news of the purchase broke. Booker said he tried to set up a meeting between the department and local officials, but DHS did not respond.
“That’s unacceptable. We haven’t even had a conversation,” Booker told Noem at a March 3 hearing in Washington.
Bronin said it was “unusual” that the federal government proceeded with the sale of such a large site without warning local authorities. He also expressed concern about the pace at which DHS is purchasing warehouses. Bronin said just selecting a site, taking into account environmental reviews and other requirements, could take “months, if not years.”
In a document shared with local officials, ICE said it is conducting site inspections, environmental studies and water infrastructure reviews, and considering “alternative options” for each warehouse it plans to purchase.
Still, local and state officials said they had requested but not received such reports. Some said the federal government’s response was inadequate.
On February 23, the Maryland Attorney General filed a lawsuit seeking to lock down the Washington County Detention Facility. The lawsuit accuses ICE of keeping the $102.4 million facility “in the dark” from the community and says ICE failed to conduct “necessary environmental reviews.”
The Department of Homeland Security described the lawsuit as an effort to “stop President Trump from making America safe again.”
Revocations and errors complicate ICE warehouse deployments
ICE’s rapid expansion has also been marred by a series of mistakes that officials say undermine public trust.
Over three days in February, the agency retracted three separate statements announcing the warehouse purchase.
“ICE is not purchasing the Lebanon, Tennessee facility,” the agency told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, a day after confirming the acquisition to multiple news organizations. “That statement was sent without proper authorization, and this mistake has since been corrected.”
ICE also retracted statements that it had purchased warehouses in Chester, New York, and Roxbury, New Jersey, causing confusion in those communities.
In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Republican lawmakers criticized the administration’s response to proposed ICE facilities in the state, accusing the agency of rushing the process and providing inaccurate information.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons testified before Congress that he shared the economic impact report with Ayotte’s office. But the governor said in a statement that “this is simply not true” and that he did not receive the report until Lyons appeared at the Capitol.
“This is the first time DHS has distributed the document after my office inquired about the economic impact study following today’s Senate hearing,” Ayotte said. “Once I received the document, I immediately shared it with the Town of Merrimack. We have published the document on my website for the public to view.”
The report itself raises new concerns, with its first paragraph referring to the “Oklahoma economy.”
“The data we got last night was clearly a cut-and-paste operation,” said New Hampshire Sen. Tim McGaw, a Republican. “The first paragraph said Oklahoma and mentioned sales tax and income tax. We don’t have either of those here.”
Christopher Cann is a national breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Email us at ccann@usatoday.com.
