Bottom Line Up Front
ICE establishes its own detention construction contracts: ICE signed seven contracts with a combined ceiling of around $8 billion for construction at 13 government-owned sites nationwide, including several outside of the continental United States. The awards establish a five-year framework for ordering design and construction work, and one of the first funded projects is the design and build-out of secure housing units at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center.
Planning begins for a nationwide intelligence network: ICE outlined plans for ERO ONE, a contract intelligence workforce that would place 142 analysts across field offices, headquarters, and national targeting centers. Analysts would conduct background research, prepare threat assessments, and map relationships among individuals, organizations, locations, and events to support enforcement planning. ICE expects the eventual contract to exceed $100 million, and plans to release the RFP in December of this year.
CBP awards contracts for new Border Patrol stations and checkpoints: Customs and Border Protection awarded fifteen new contracts totaling over $1.6 billion for the design and construction of border patrol stations, checkpoints, and other facilities. The portfolio includes Border Patrol stations in Texas, New Mexico, California, and Maine; checkpoints in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; and aviation projects in San Angelo and Tucson.
Detention expansion includes modular and temporary units: ICE is pursuing smaller-scale detention capacity alongside its permanent construction plans. The agency added $7.2 million to an existing order for a tent facility for detained women at Batavia, New York, while seeking contractor input on prefabricated detention, interview, and virtual courtroom units at approximately 50 enforcement offices nationwide.
September’s Biggest Contracts
CBP awarded over $5 billion in contracts this month, and almost a third of that was awarded for the design and build-out of new border patrol stations and checkpoints. The 15 contracts will fund the construction of seven Border Patrol stations, five checkpoint facilities, a hangar in San Angelo, Texas, and a renovation of the Tucson Air Branch in Arizona. A separate $332 million project in Laredo, Texas, is described only as a design-build project, leaving its facility type unspecified.
Texas is the center of this month’s construction activity, with Border Patrol station projects in Rio Grande City, Brackettville, Eagle Pass, and Presidio; new checkpoints in Sierra Blanca and Laredo; and the San Angelo hangar. Elsewhere in the Southwest, CBP awarded both a station and a checkpoint in Las Cruces, New Mexico, checkpoints in Wellton and Nogales, Arizona, and a station in Calexico, California. The portfolio also reaches the northern border with a new 50-agent Border Patrol station in Houlton, Maine.
At ICE, the majority of spending this month went towards continuing operations. Amentum received an additional $200 million to operate Camp East Montana, the temporary immigration detention center at Fort Bliss that has drawn scrutiny over its conditions and is the subject of a lawsuit alleging abuse, unsafe living conditions, and inadequate medical care.
B.I. Incorporated, a subsidiary of The GEO Group, was awarded an additional $41 million to continue running the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). ISAP is an alternatives-to-detention program that uses ankle monitors, smartphone check-ins, and other surveillance technology to monitor immigrants living outside detention while their immigration cases proceed. ICE has increasingly shifted participants from smartphone-based monitoring to GPS ankle monitors.
In San Antonio, GardaWorld Federal received an additional $44 million to continue converting a recently purchased warehouse into an immigration detention center. It is the only ICE warehouse conversion project that has not been paused or canceled.
ICE has big plans for FY27
While September did not bring about a huge end-of-year spend at ICE, the agency made some big moves to set itself up for the future. The largest contracting action was the award of “Single Award Construction Contracts” that will be used to build additional detention space at 13 locations nationwide, including several sites outside of the continental United States.
Most of the contracts don’t have any projects funded through them yet, but Burrow Global JV was awarded $21.4 million to start building Secure Housing Units at Port Isabel Service Processing Center. As we previously reported, the building will consist of 26 steel cells: 21 in a men’s section, three in a women’s section, and two built to meet accessibility rules, one on each side. It would also have three day rooms, three showers, two soundproof search rooms, secure entry vestibules, a control room, staff offices, and storage space. The men’s and women’s sections would have separate fenced recreation yards. To stay up to date on the detention expansion construction contracts, visit our tracker.
ICE is also laying the groundwork for a larger intelligence operation. The agency’s September market research for ERO ONE - Enforcement and Removal Operations Overwatch and National Security Enforcement - outlined a network of 142 contract intelligence analysts supporting 24 field offices, headquarters, and three national targeting centers. Analysts would research classified and unclassified information, prepare threat assessments, and build link charts mapping relationships among individuals, organizations, locations, and events.
The agency expects the eventual intelligence contract to exceed $100 million, and ICE said it planned to release a formal solicitation by December 10 and award the work in spring 2027.
Another procurement to watch as FY27 begins is ICE’s request for proposals for “turn-key detention facilities” serving the Denver, Miami, Philadelphia, and Seattle areas of responsibility. Interested companies have already submitted proposals, and ICE is currently evaluating them with the intent to award separate contracts for each facility that will have anticipated ordering periods of 10 years. Those awards are expected in October.
Together with the construction contracts and ERO ONE planning, the turnkey procurement shows ICE preparing several parallel routes for FY27 expansion: building additional detention space, contracting for facilities and their operation, and adding intelligence support for enforcement.
About this Report
All procurement data used in this report is from usaspending.gov and SAM.gov. If there are specific procurements, companies, regions, or topics you would like us to cover in future monthly reports, please reach out to us and let us know.