The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) expects to spend an estimated $38.3 billion on a plan to buy warehouses across the U.S., refurbishing them as new immigration detention centers with capacity for tens of thousands of detainees, according to documents the agency sent to the governor of New Hampshire.

The Guardian reports that the documents, published on the state’s website on February 12, disclose that the Department of Homeland Security estimates it will spend $158 million on retrofitting a new detention facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, plus an additional estimated $146 million to operate the facility in the first three years.

On February 13, USCIS confirmed it had bought a warehouse in Chester, New York.  According to the Times Herald-Record, the purchase has drawn opposition from local residents and elected officials due to a lack of federal communication.

NPR's Marketplace podcast reported in September 2025 that data from NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Developers Association, showed demand for warehouse space shrank by 11.3 million square feet in the second quarter of 2025, the first quarterly decline in 15 years.

According to an overview of the USCIS plans, which were first reported by the Washington Post, U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) would buy 16 buildings across the U.S., and convert them into regional processing centers, each capable of holding 1,000 to 1,500 people. Another eight large-scale detention centers would hold 7,000 to 10,000 people at a time, and serve as “the primary locations” for deportations. 

The new model for increasing detention space is needed, according to the document, due to a surge in ICE hires and an anticipated rise in arrests, the Guardian said.