The Warehouse Arc — Artivist.Media

The Warehouse Arc — ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative

$38.3B

Program price tag (ICE memo)

Warehouses purchased (~$1.07B)

13+

Purchases stopped by communities

Sites slated for sell-off

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Flagged hover any flag or ? for what’s confirmed vs. still needs a primary source.

Jul 2025

OBBBA hands ICE ~$45B for detention

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act appropriates roughly $45 billion specifically for detention expansion — more than a decade of normal funding in a single pot, and the fuel for everything that follows.

Src: American Immigration Council; Oxford Border Criminologies

Dec 2025

Warehouse acquisitions begin

ICE starts quietly purchasing and announcing plans to convert commercial warehouses into detention and processing facilities, largely out of public view.

Src: Detention Watch Network

Jan 16, 2026

Williamsport, MD warehouse bought — $102.4M

ICE records the deed on an 825,620-sq-ft warehouse near Williamsport (Hagerstown area) with four toilets and two water fountains, planned for up to 1,500 people.

Src: Maryland OAG

Jan 23, 2026

Surprise, AZ warehouse bought — $70M

ICE purchases a warehouse across the street from a hazardous-chemical storage facility; a $300M+ retrofit contract follows.

Src: Court filings via CBS News

Jan 24, 2026

Detained population peaks at 70,766

The highest single-day figure ever recorded in ICE’s public data, and the first time the agency held more than 70,000 people.

Src: Austin Kocher (Syracuse / Substack)

Feb 2, 2026

Howard County, MD revokes a detention permit

An early community win: a county pulls a building permit for a private facility being retrofitted for ICE — a preview of the local-leverage tactics to come.

Src: Austin Kocher

Feb 12, 2026

The “Detention Reengineering Initiative” memo

The program’s founding document: 34 ICE-owned sites (8 large-scale “mega-centers” at 7,000–10,000 people, 16 regional processing centers at 1,000–1,500, plus 10 turnkey sites), all to be activated by Nov 30, 2026. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons frames it as “Prime, but with human beings.”

Src: NH Gov. office; Spotlight PA; AIC; NILC

Feb 13, 2026

$38.3B price tag goes public Memo figure ≠ appropriation

The Washington Post publishes the program’s full projected cost from documents released by New Hampshire’s governor — nearly ten times ICE’s entire 2024 detention budget.

$38.3B is the ICE memo’s own cost projection; the ~$45B figure elsewhere is the OBBBA appropriation. The two are not interchangeable.

Src: Washington Post (MacMillan & O’Connell)

Feb 2026

Romulus, MI warehouse bought — $34.7M

ICE pays 57% above the prior sale price for a ~250,000-sq-ft warehouse near Detroit Metro Airport, in a floodplain and within a mile of two schools.

Src: Michigan OAG

Feb 23, 2026

Maryland files the FIRST lawsuit

AG Anthony Brown sues DHS and ICE over the Williamsport site — alleging NEPA and Administrative Procedure Act violations. This establishes the environmental-law track every later state would copy.

Src: Maryland OAG; State Energy & Environmental Impact Center

Mar 6, 2026

Trump announces Noem out, Mullin in

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem — the program’s champion — is pushed out amid mounting contract scandals; Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) is named her replacement.

Src: CBS News

Mar 11, 2026

Maryland wins a temporary restraining order

Judge Brendan Hurson halts construction at Williamsport — the first court order against the program.

Src: Maryland OAG

Mar 24, 2026

Michigan sues — and Mullin takes DHS the same day

AG Dana Nessel and the City of Romulus file suit on NEPA/Intergovernmental Cooperation Act grounds. The same day, Mullin is sworn in and inherits the $38.3B plan.

Src: Michigan OAG; CBS News

Late Mar 2026

DHS pauses new purchases; IG opens probe Partly unconfirmed

Mullin freezes new warehouse purchases and orders a review of all Noem-era contracts; the DHS Inspector General opens a formal investigation. New $25M+ contracts now reportedly require deputy-secretary sign-off.

The pause and the review are confirmed (AP/PBS). The exact IG-probe date and the $25M threshold trace to automated cascade trackers citing NBC — credible but not yet primary-sourced.

Src: AP / PBS (pause); cascade trackers / NBC (probe date, threshold — verify)

Apr 15, 2026

Maryland wins a preliminary injunction

Hurson grants a PI halting retrofit work at Williamsport, finding ICE’s claimed categorical exclusions failed “the laugh test.” The first PI against the program — and proof NEPA is a viable track.

Src: The Daily Record; Kocher; Center for Biological Diversity

Apr 16, 2026

~10 warehouses bought; halfway to the bed goal

By mid-April ICE has purchased ~10 warehouses, adding ~41,500 beds (about half of the 92,600 target) at a cost exceeding $1B.

Src: FWD.us

Apr 24, 2026

Arizona sues over the Surprise site

AG Kris Mayes files on NEPA/APA grounds plus an Immigration and Nationality Act “appropriate location” claim, citing the adjacent chemical-hazard zone. New Jersey’s AG and governor filed a parallel complaint weeks earlier.

NJ filing date not pinned: AZPM places it in March 2026 but the exact day is unconfirmed.

Src: Arizona AG; AZPM; Arizona Mirror

Apr 28, 2026

Stop-work order at the Surprise contractor

A stop-work order tied to the project is issued to GardaWorld, per USAspending.gov records.

Src: KJZZ / AZPM

Jun 16–21, 2026

Surprise activists move to disincorporate the city

Organizer Jeremy Helfgot files a petition to dissolve the City of Surprise (requiring ~70,000 signatures, transferring governance to Maricopa County), citing the council’s refusal to engage on the facility’s hazards.

Src: KJZZ

Jun 18, 2026

NYT: ICE to offload 7 of 11 warehouses

Internal documents show ICE plans to sell or transfer seven sites — Salt Lake City, Romulus, the New Jersey site, both Georgia warehouses, and both Pennsylvania warehouses.

Src: New York Times (via DWN, CBS)

Jun 22–23, 2026

Romulus sale confirmed in court; PA & Socorro fall

DHS tells a federal judge it will sell the Romulus warehouse. Sen. Fetterman confirms the two Pennsylvania sites (Tremont, Upper Bern) are cancelled; the Socorro, TX plan unravels.

Src: WoodTV; USA TODAY; CBS Atlanta

Jun 25, 2026

Administration scraps the warehouse program

Following lawsuits, the leadership change, and nationwide backlash, the administration abandons the warehouse-conversion initiative and shifts to “EXISTING detention space with state and county partners.” Four sites remain at risk: Surprise, Williamsport, San Antonio, Socorro.

Src: USA TODAY (Cann)

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Site status tracker

11 purchased + key blocked sales · click a header to sort

Purchase prices and capacities from court filings, state AG releases, and the ICE Detention Reengineering memo. “Cancelled” includes sales blocked before purchase. Data current to Jun 25, 2026; ICE stopped publishing regular detention figures in early April 2026, so later facility data depends on FOIA and leaked documents.

Site ↕	State ↕	Type ↕	Planned beds ↕	Price ($M) ↕	Status ↕