The rapid effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to convert commercial warehouses into detention centers has hit another controversy: big price tags. The initiative has involved a parade of warehouse purchases in which the government has repeatedly paid tens of millions above documented appraisal values or recent sale prices. In a competitive real estate market, the Department of Homeland Security says the prices represent “fair market value.” On March 3, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a hearing on Capitol Hill, accusing DHS of supporting an “incredible empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we’ve never seen.” “You paid $129.3 million for a facility in my state that was assessed at less than half of that, at $62 million,” Booker said to Noem, who has since been ousted by President Donald Trump . “To work for a president who says he’s a great dealmaker … I can’t believe he thinks that you’re a great dealmaker.” Meanwhile, in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, DHS paid $87.4 million for a warehouse that sold in 2024 for $57.5 million, public records show. A drone picture shows a warehouse purchased by the Department o

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