By admin 
SURPRISE, AZ (AZFamily) — The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General will investigate whether ICE overpaid for warehouses across the country that the agency plans to convert into detention centers.
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One of those warehouses is in Surprise and the federal government bought it earlier this year.
The inspector general will examine how ICE purchased and plans to convert these facilities into detention centers and whether taxpayers got their money’s worth.
“What they’ll do is gather the relevant documents, talk to people who are involved in the purchase and try and make an assessment as to the appropriateness of both the purchase and the financing surrounding it,” said Andrew Gordon, former counsel to ex-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Gordon said he took inspector general reports seriously during his time in the Obama administration.
“It’s like being in school and telling your mom, the teacher said, hey, you know, Andy just got an F in math,” Gordon said.
The government paid $70 million cash for the 418,400-square-foot Surprise facility that sits near Dysart and Waddell roads.
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A report from the real estate analytics company CoStar found ICE paid $34 per square foot more for the building than other recent comparable trades. That’s a difference of about $14 million to $15 million.
Last year, Congress passed the single largest package of DHS funding in history.
“Money is appropriated on an annual basis. And so the agency wants to spend the money in the year that it has it because come next year, Congress could recapture those unspent funds,” Gordon said.
But at least part of the $38 billion detention center project has an uncertain future. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued to block the facility last month.
“You’ve got all this real estate on your hands that you can’t use. The government would either need to try and find a way to repurpose it for something useful, but more than likely it’s going to be sold and it will be sold at a huge loss,” Gordon said.
Gordon said these audits typically take a few months to complete.
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