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The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically increased spending to turn properties across the US into detention centers, with taxpayers footing the bill. Meanwhile, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) corruption is rising steeply.

Overpaid Properties

In one real estate deal, ICE bought a warehouse in Social Circle, GA, from the PNK Group & PNK S1 LLC, owned by Andrey Sharkov, who has chocolate bar ties to Vladimir Putin. 

Sharkov, who has a shady history in Russia, purchased the property for $29.4 million in 2024. Less than two years later, ICE paid $128.5 million for it — that’s a $100 million profit in just two years. The sale closed in just four days, a stark contrast to the typical months-to-year timeline for federal property acquisitions.

The PNK Group, established in 2004, is an international industrial real estate developer based in Russia that has been expanding its real estate purchases across the US. 

Sharkov started with a candy company called Shokobox in Saint Petersburg, Russia, that made chocolate bars of Putin hugging puppies, and a decade later he’s a global industrial real estate developer.

The Georgia sale is not an isolated incident. In Hamburg, PA, ICE bought a warehouse for $87.4 million, a 52 percent increase from its previous sale price of $57.5 million; Greg Eberhardt of PCCP LLC, which sold the property, hung up on a reporter who called inquiring about the unusual sale.

In Surprise, AZ, ICE spent $70 million for a property appraised at $46.6 million, a 50 percent increase. The property was sold by RG Surprise LLC, created in 2023 and owned by the Rockefeller Group.

In Hagerstown, MD, ICE bought a warehouse for $102.4 million, up 33 percent from its refinancing price seven months earlier. The property was sold by FRND-Hopewell LLC, owned by Fundrise LLC, which is run and owned by CEO Ben Miller and his brother Dan.

The worst deal was in Socorro, TX, where ICE spent $122.8 million on a warehouse valued at $29 million — an astounding 323 percent markup. The property was sold by El Paso Logistics II LLC in Delaware, a shell company established in 2022, owned by Flint Development, which is owned by Hunter Harris and Devin Schuster, and investor NewStreet Properties LLC, which is owned by Brian Diedrichsen.

In total, ICE has overpaid about $690 million for just seven properties. Yet, while public services like health care and disaster relief face budget cuts, ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion on more detention centers, with no competitive bidding or oversight.

Expanding Corruption

These suspect deals, made with taxpayer money, raise legitimate concerns about corruption. A 2025 poll showed 58 percent of Americans feel Trump’s immigration policies have gone too far. 

Adding to suspicions over the inflated and expedited ICE property deals, evidence now shows Epstein further compromised US Customs and Border Protection agents for years. 

At least six officers, including supervisory officer James Heil, gave him special treatment, like expedited screenings, in exchange for gifts. One officer even performed on Epstein’s island for money. Despite FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigations, no charges were ever filed.

All this reveals at the very least a total lack of accountability, if not entrenched systemic corruption.

Budget Inequity

According to the Brennan Center, “The GOP One Big Beautiful Act allocates more than $170 billion over four years for border and interior enforcement which includes CBP and ICE, with a stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year.”

This funding for CBP and ICE exceeds the Marine Corps’ $53.72 billion budget by more than three times, yet the administration continues to fail in holding these agencies or their agents accountable for blatant over-spending and apparent widespread corruption.

Child Abuse at ICE Facility

While not among the facilities selling for inflated prices, it’s impossible not to mention the CoreCivic abuses at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas that are so serious officials had to confiscate children’s crayons to prevent them from telling their stories. Dilley has an internally named special “Blue Butterfly Zone” where children and teenage girls have disappeared and no one from the outside has access to them. (Blue Butterfly: Inside the Diary of an Epstein Survivor was the name of an autobiographical book from a teen Epstein survivor that was canceled because of threats to the author.) 

These actions are not just draining taxpayer dollars and enriching a few, they are assaulting the Constitution, as well as harming and actually disappearing children. 

Congress needs to address this constellation of deeply troubling issues because they are undermining the government’s legitimacy — which could have dire consequences.

Hashtag Picks

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US

From Bloomberg: “Despite protests in small towns and cities across the US, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with the purchase of warehouses it plans to convert into immigration jails in what could be the largest expansion of such detention capacity in US history. The cost for acquiring two warehouses alone was $172 million. … The deals mark the latest turn in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to use as many as 23 warehouses for detaining thousands of immigrants arrested by federal agents in Minneapolis and other cities.”

ICE’s Real Estate Expansion Leads to Property Deals in Texas, Georgia

From CoStar News: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has purchased two facilities in Texas, as well as a property outside of Atlanta, as it makes way for detention facilities expected to house detainees as the federal government expands its enforcement of immigration laws. The three Sun Belt industrial properties total about 2.5 million square feet in San Antonio, Texas; a location near El Paso, Texas; and Social Circle, Georgia, according to deed records and city officials.”

ICE’s Largest Prison Contractors Hail ‘New Growth Opportunities’ as Revenue Reaches All-Time High

The author writes, “Two of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) biggest contractors for building and managing detention centers have posted record revenue in 2025, as companies are expanding their facilities nationwide to hold more immigrants apprehended by the Trump Administration.” 

How ICE Grew To Be the Highest-Funded US Law Enforcement Agency

From NPR: “Just 10 years ago, the annual budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was less than $6 billion — notably smaller than other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But ICE’s budget has skyrocketed during President Trump’s second term, becoming the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with $85 billion now at its disposal. The windfall is thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted last July. After hovering around the $10 billion mark for years, ICE’s budget suddenly benefited from a meteoric spike.”

ICE, Inc.: The Top Companies Profiting From Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

From the Project on Government Oversight: “A number of the companies winning the largest amount of ICE contracts in Trump’s second term made large political contributions and lobbied on a law tripling ICE’s budget.”

Big Budget Act Creates a ‘Deportation Industrial Complex’ That Will Be Hard To Dismantle

From Just Security: “Taken together long-term detention and surveillance contracts, rapid hiring increases for enforcement, and new monetary incentives for reprioritizing law enforcement on immigration will create a deportation-industrial complex — an enforcement machine with financial and political constituencies that will outlast this administration.”

Russian Businessman Andrey Sharkov’s Ex-Pilot Sues Him & Bermuda Firm in Battle for Ownership of $20M Private Jet

The author writes, “A new lawsuit has been filed in a long-running legal battle between Russian businessman Andrey Sharkov and his former pilot, Aleksandr Buzin — and involving entities in Bermuda, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, and the Marshall Islands — over ownership of a $20 million private jet.”

Epstein’s Reported Ties to US Border Officers Close to His Island Trigger Probe

The author writes, “Jeffrey Epstein had developed a rapport with some US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers who were based close to his private island, the New York Times reported [last week]. According to the report, Epstein had developed ‘chummy relationships’ with some CBP personnel stationed in St. Thomas, close to ‘Little St. James’ island in the US Virgin Islands, a US territory in the Caribbean region. Epstein provided certain CBP personnel responsible for controlling entry and exit to the island with benefits such as food, helicopter rides, and financial advice, according to emails and other records recently released by the US Justice Department.”

Epstein Files Allegations May Amount To ‘Crimes Against Humanity’: UN Experts

The author writes, “A panel of United Nations experts suggested that allegations detailed in the millions of documents released by the Justice Department (DOJ) connected to its probe of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein could amount to some of the most serious crimes under international law.”