A Government Accountability Office report found ICE launched six detention expansion initiatives since January 2025 without a comprehensive strategic plan, wasting or risking waste of taxpayer funds; four of the six had already been scaled back by July 2026. Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility operated without a traditional ICE contract, instead run by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and its contractors, with a federally authorized daily bed rate nearly three times ICE's median and eligibility for hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA reimbursement. Despite receiving $45 billion from Congress through fiscal year 2029, ICE's detainee population grew 71% from 39,314 to 67,180 between January 2025 and July 2026, while authorized detention facilities roughly doubled from 134 to 272.