GAO: ICE Expanded Long-Term Detention Sites in 2025–26 as Inspections Declined

A new Government Accountability Office report says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rapidly expanded its long-term detention system in 2025 and 2026 even as federal inspection practices were reduced or reworked, and the agency has not used available evidence to show that oversight remains adequate.

In a report released Thursday, GAO said the number of ICE-authorized facilities holding noncitizens for more than 72 hours rose from 128 in April 2025 to 172 in April 2026, an increase of more than 40 sites. Over the same period, the average daily detained population in those facilities climbed 52%, from 40,587 to 61,817.

GAO said that from fiscal year 2024 through July 2026, three of the four Department of Homeland Security entities involved in detention inspections either changed how often they inspect facilities or stopped inspections altogether. The shifts came as ICE detention standards continued to govern core conditions including medical care and food service, and as inspections remained one of the main ways DHS checks whether facilities are meeting those standards.

The sharpest change came at ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight, or ODO. GAO said ODO conducted 194 inspections in fiscal 2024 and 102 in fiscal 2025. On March 28, 2025, ODO revised its framework so that inspection frequency and type are tied to a facility’s average daily population, increasing the use of self-inspections at smaller sites. Under that system, ODO conducts on-site inspections every two years at facilities with an average daily population of 50 or more, while facilities with 49 or fewer detainees complete self-inspections every two years. GAO also said the DHS Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, or OIDO, underwent a large reduction in force, did not receive an appropriation for fiscal 2026 and had stopped conducting inspections by July 2026. The ICE Health Service Corps, which focuses on medical standards, reported 80 inspections in fiscal 2024 and 117 in fiscal 2025, with its process largely unchanged. The DHS Office of Inspector General continued inspections, used some shortened inspections in fiscal 2025 and returned to its original inspection length in August 2026 after receiving multiyear funding in fiscal 2026.

GAO’s central finding was that ICE did not use evidence already available to it — including inspection deficiency data and contract-compliance performance information — to determine how the inspection changes affected detention conditions or whether the combined inspection system was still sufficient. The report said ICE guidance recognizes that detention standards are meant to ensure people are held “in the most humane manner possible,” but said the agency had not assessed whether its altered oversight structure could still identify deficiencies and enforce compliance.

GAO made two recommendations to ICE: first, that the agency use evidence and performance information to assess the effects of the inspection changes and whether inspections are collectively sufficient; and second, that ICE modify its inspections based on that assessment as appropriate. DHS agreed with the recommendations, though GAO said both remain open pending documented action. The report ties the detention expansion to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order, “Securing Our Borders,” which directed DHS to detain people apprehended for immigration-law violations “to the fullest extent permitted by law” until removal.