Plans To Use NJ Joint Base For Immigrant Detainees Dropped, Federal Report Says

JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NJ — Plans to house immigrant detainees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst have been dropped by the Trump administration, according to the federal Government Accountability Office.

The change in plans was revealed in a report by the General Accounting Office examining waste by the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in immigrant detention released Sept. 24.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst was named as a potential site for ICE detainees in July 2025, five months after ICE initially made the requests to the Department of Defense.

The report said GAO officials toured a detention facility at the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, among other facilities, and noted that officials with the Department of Defense and ICE said they no longer planned to move forward with detention centers at the Joint Base in New Jersey and in Indiana.

"In October 2025, DOD officials stated that they no longer plan to build detention facilities on other military installations," the report said.

The GAO report noted ICE’s funding for immigration detention facilities has increased significantly, "rising to unprecedented levels," with $45 billion appropriated for detention capacity through fiscal year 2029.

A footnote in the report notes that while officials told the GAO they do not plan to build detention facilities on military installations moving forward, "ICE has not rescinded its February 2025 request for assistance, and the agreement remains active as of August 2026."

"Since January 2025, ICE has invested significant resources in six new initiatives to expand its detention capacity. However, as of July 2026, ICE has scaled back four of those initiatives, resulting in wasted, or potentially wasted, resources," the report said.

In the detention center at Fort Bliss, for example, contracts for meals were set to maximum occupancy levels, and did not account for occupancy being less than the maximum. As a result, ICE paid about $7.1 million for meals it did not need from Oct. 1, 2025, through March 12, the GAO report said.

ICE also spent $1.07 billion nationwide buying 11 warehouse facilities to turn into detention centers, but now intends to sell seven of those because the Department of Homeland Security "had not conducted appropriate due diligence and planning," the report said.

ICE reported spending $7.7 million on nonrecoverable costs, such as zoning assessments and title insurance, to purchase the seven warehouses that it now intends to sell, the report said, and ICE continues to pay for utilities, security, and other services at these warehouses, estimating $12.8 million spent on those services so far.

"If the government sells those seven warehouses for less than ICE’s purchase price of $707 million, that will result in additional waste," the GAO report said.