By Marianne LeVine and Mariah Timms

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is expected to scrap plans to use seven warehouses purchased as part of $38 billion program under then-Secretary Kristi Noem to flip them into large-scale immigration-detention centers, according to a person familiar with the decision.

The warehouses will either be sold or used for other purposes, the person said.

The department said in a statement that the agency is "moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bought 11 vacant warehouses over the winter, spending more than $1 billion. Noem had pressured immigration officials to try to open the new detention centers by the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The properties largely weren't zoned for detention and didn't have working plumbing to support large detainee populations.

At the time, the government said it planned to acquire and convert more than two dozen warehouses into detention centers and processing sites. Combined with 10 other, existing facilities it planned to purchase, they would collectively hold more than 92,000 detainees.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Noem's successor, immediately paused the warehouse plan after he took office in March. His marching orders are to lower his agency's profile, the Journal reported last month.

The DHS's inspector general recently announced a probe of the warehouse-to-detention program. The purchases raised concern among officials across the administration. Critics pointed out that ICE could have expanded detention centers faster by purchasing unused public and private jail facilities.

DHS is also expected to allow the closure of Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz," a soft-sided, state-run facility built on an abandoned airstrip in the Florida Everglades that Noem had relied on to increase detention capacity. Plans to open a detainee-processing facility in Merrimack, N.H., were scrapped after community protests.

The New York Times earlier reported on the change in ICE's plans.

Write to Marianne LeVine at marianne.levine@wsj.com and Mariah Timms at mariah.timms@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 18, 2026 22:11 ET (02:11 GMT)

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