The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog announced an audit Wednesday into a now-paused plan to turn warehouses into immigration detention centers.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s $38 billion program would have housed more than 92,000 immigrants in retrofitted warehouses, a proposal that sparked multiple lawsuits and bipartisan backlash from lawmakers. Markwayne Mullin paused the project when he took over as secretary, but the DHS inspector general is now launching an inquiry into the warehouses the agency had already purchased. The investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“DHS OIG can confirm this audit was announced recently,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “However, as a matter of course, we do not provide any additional information publicly on the scale or scope of our ongoing work.”