The federal government spent roughly $1 billion buying warehouses to use as ICE detention centers, and in deal after deal, the sellers were people with direct financial ties to Donald Trump. A new investigation by More Perfect Union, confirmed by data from investigative journalist Michael Wriston at Project Salt Box, found that DHS paid up to ten times the appraised value for properties that Trump-connected investors had been sitting on for years, unable to move at market rates. They were distressed assets until the federal government turned them into jackpots.
Congressional scrutiny is now catching up. The payments, however, are already made and the profits are already banked.
The Properties Nobody Could Sell
In Socorro, Texas, a warehouse recently appraised at $11 million was purchased by ICE from El Paso Logistics II LLC for $123 million, a profit of more than 1,000 percent. In Surprise, Arizona, a property valued at just under $12 million sold to ICE for over $70 million. In Social Circle, Georgia, a warehouse valued at roughly $30 million sold for nearly $130 million.
Wriston reviewed more than a dozen warehouse acquisitions and found that ICE paid prices exceeding both prior property valuations and recent market comparables at nearly every site. Many of these properties had been on the market for years, generating losses for their owners. Then DHS showed up with a checkbook and no questions.
"The plan came from folks very close to the White House who were sitting on properties that were causing them losses every year," Wriston told More Perfect Union. "The decision was made to buy them at taxpayer expense."
Blue Owl, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank
A warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, appraised at about $54.6 million, sold to ICE for over $129 million. Its majority owner was Goldman Sachs, whose alumni roster includes former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former White House adviser Gary Cohn. Goldman refinanced the property as part of a $352 million loan in late 2025, just months before DHS purchased it.
A warehouse in Tremont, Pennsylvania, appraised at roughly $60 million, sold for nearly $120 million. Its owner was Blue Owl Capital, in whose funds at least 33 Trump administration officials hold investments, including Trump himself, who holds approximately $5 million in Blue Owl. Blue Owl's board also includes a former director of one of Trump's companies.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, a warehouse valued at $97 million sold to ICE for $145 million, with plans to convert it into a 10,000-bed detention facility. Its owner was Deutsche Bank, which has extended Trump roughly $2.5 billion in loans over two decades.
"ICE doesn't necessarily want to be using warehouses. The plan came from folks very close to the White House who were sitting on properties that were causing them losses every year. The decision was made to buy them at taxpayer expense." (Michael Wriston, Project Salt Box)
The Broader Pattern
The warehouse purchases fit a larger pattern of ICE contracts flowing to Trump's financial supporters. According to OpenSecrets, the two largest private prison companies now holding ICE detention contracts, GEO Group and CoreCivic, received a combined $2.8 billion in ICE contracts. Both donated $500,000 each to Trump's inaugural committee. GEO Group's employee PAC contributed an additional $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC during the 2024 campaign.
DHS had authorization to spend close to $40 billion total on this warehouse program. At least 13 purchases have since been canceled after public backlash. The rest are locked in. Investigators reviewing the contracts are now asking what appraisers and contracting officers were doing when they approved payments of ten times market value on properties the sellers had been desperate to unload for years.
DHS has not offered an explanation. The sellers have already cashed out.
Sources
- Common Dreams: 'A New Level of Corruption': DHS Bought ICE Warehouses From Trump Cronies For 10x Markup
- Raw Story: Outrage as Trump cronies buy ICE warehouses for 10x markup
- More Perfect Union: The World's Biggest Banks May Be Benefiting from the ICE Warehouse Craze
- Mediaite: Trump Administration Overpaid for DHS Warehouses Owned by President's Allies
Independent. Unfiltered. Unbought.
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