GAO: DOD Reported ~$68M Obligated for Immigration Detention and $2.85M on Guantanamo Tents Never Used; ICE's Military-Assistance Request Still Active

GAO’s September 24, 2026 report on ICE’s detention expansion (GAO-26-108663) puts figures on the Defense Department’s part in it. DOD reported obligating approximately $68 million for immigration detention from October 1, 2024 to May 31, 2026 (p. 7). At Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, a January 2025 Presidential Memorandum directed DHS and DOD to provide additional detention space, and the two departments began efforts to reach 30,000 beds. DOD assembled tents for an initial capacity of 5,000. DHS then determined the tents did not meet detention standards; they were taken down and never used to house detained noncitizens (p. 6). The DOD and State Department inspectors general reported that DOD spent $2.85 million assembling them (p. 7). DOD officials told GAO the operation was downsized in mid-February 2025 because detaining the planned 30,000 was deemed infeasible, in part because building facilities that met ICE detention standards was cost-prohibitive (p. 7, citing GAO-26-108437).

GAO lists Guantanamo as one of six initiatives ICE started since January 2025 to expand detention capacity; by July 2026 ICE had scaled back four of the six (p. 5). It also found ICE has no comprehensive strategic plan for the expansion (p. 11) and had not assessed the risks and benefits of high-operating-cost facilities such as Guantanamo against its traditional detention portfolio (p. 12).

The report records a second DOD channel, domestic installations. On February 12, 2025, DHS sent DOD a request to access military installations for ICE detention operations. Camp East Montana opened on Fort Bliss in August 2025; the Army awarded and administered the task order on ICE’s behalf in July 2025 and transferred contract administration to ICE at the start of fiscal year 2026. DHS also requested other installations and began planning facilities at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. In October 2025 DOD officials said they no longer plan to build detention facilities on other installations, and DOD and ICE officials told GAO the Indiana and New Jersey plans did not move forward (p. 7). In a footnote, GAO adds that ICE has not rescinded its February 2025 request for assistance, and the agreement remains active as of August 2026 (p. 7, n. 25). The decision not to build rests on what officials told GAO; the request and the agreement it created were still in force when GAO finished its work.

GAO recommends that ICE develop a comprehensive strategic plan. DHS agreed; ICE does not expect to complete it until August 31, 2027, and GAO said that, given ICE’s unprecedented multi-year detention funding, “more timely completion may be warranted” (p. 13).

The Camp East Montana meal and services waste findings come from a separate GAO report, GAO-26-108886, covered in 2026-06-19–ice-megajail-program-retreats-gao-finds-camp-east-montana-wasted-millions. The overall report, including ICE’s own spending on Guantanamo and the warehouse purchases, is covered in 2026-09-24–gao-ice-no-strategic-plan-45b-detention-expansion-waste. The Army’s Fort Bliss task order is in 2025-07-18–acquisition-logistics-fort-bliss-wexmac-task-order.

Surfaced by Natalie Oliverio of Military Times (October 1, 2026), and amplified by Karen Starr on Substack. All figures above were checked against the GAO PDF, not the secondary reporting.