ICE expanded detention by 52% while cutting key facility inspections

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanded its average daily population in long-term detention facilities by 52 percent—from 40,587 people in April 2025 to 61,817 in April 2026—while the number of authorized facilities rose from 128 to 172. Over roughly the same period, ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight cut its annual inspections from 194 in fiscal 2024 to 102 in fiscal 2025, the Government Accountability Office reported November 5.

The change was broader than a lower inspection count. ICE shifted its main inspections from twice yearly to annually for dedicated facilities and every two years for non-dedicated facilities. Some smaller and U.S. Marshals Service facilities now conduct assisted self-inspections. The office also generally stopped unannounced inspections. A separate statutory ombudsman office conducted its last inspection in January 2026 after losing funding.

ICE’s March 2025 policy memo said the new approach would reduce burdens on service providers and help the agency obtain detention space from state, county and local partners. The system includes facilities operated by private companies and facilities used through agreements with state and local governments. Congress provided $45 billion through fiscal 2029 for detention capacity in a July 2025 law, and another 2026 law included about $1.1 billion that ICE allocated to custody operations, according to GAO.

GAO did not conclude that every detention facility had deteriorated. It found that ICE had not documented a holistic assessment of whether the changed inspection system could identify deficiencies quickly enough. In fiscal 2024, inspections at 70 facilities operating under one set of detention standards identified 933 deficiencies involving medical care, food service, environmental health and other areas.

DHS disputed the idea that fewer inspections necessarily meant fewer rated facility assessments. It told GAO that ICE reviews recurring deficiencies and can change the timing or frequency of oversight. Medical inspections by the ICE Health Service Corps continued, and the DHS inspector general received $20 million for a temporary increase that is expected to include about 96 contractor-assisted inspections. DHS agreed with GAO’s two recommendations but asked that they be closed as already implemented. GAO declined because ICE had not supplied a documented assessment covering the combined changes.

Independent reporting found concrete gaps before GAO finished its review. A July CBS News analysis reported that 15 of 45 detention facilities holding at least 500 people had gone more than a year without an inspection, and five had no inspection on record. CBS said nearly 90 percent of ICE inspections since 2019 found at least one deficiency. DHS told CBS that its risk-based system remained robust, that dedicated facilities were scheduled for inspection that fiscal year and that ICE works with facilities to correct problems.

The supported finding is narrower than a claim that every facility failed and more consequential than a staffing adjustment: ICE enlarged a detention-and-contracting system while reducing, ending or shifting inspections without showing GAO a systemwide analysis that the replacement structure could catch health, safety and contract-compliance problems in time.