One Hundred and Fifty Leases
WIRED reviewed federal records showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has secretly negotiated more than 150 new office leases and expansions across nearly every U.S. state — many near schools, medical offices, and places of worship — with the General Services Administration explicitly asked to bypass usual procurement procedures and conceal listings under 'national security' pretext.
#predatory capital #deportation machinery
Federal records obtained by WIRED document a months-long, deliberately quiet expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s physical footprint: more than one hundred and fifty leases and office expansions, in nearly every state, frequently sited near elementary schools, child-care providers, medical offices, and other places the agency itself classifies as sensitive. The General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, was asked in writing by DHS to disregard normal lease procurement procedures and to conceal listings on grounds of “national security.” A GSA spokesperson, asked, said only that GSA was “following all lease procurement procedures in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
The expansion is the physical correlate of the agency’s funding surge under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which directed nearly eighty billion dollars to ICE. The agency has more than doubled in size since January 2025; the offices are where the new agents will work. Reporting on the build-out is not, in itself, a scandal — every federal agency leases office space — but the procurement choices reveal an intent: place the offices where they can be reached quickly, and place them quietly enough that the cities involved cannot organize against them in advance.