Yellow Jacket InitiativeDetention money
ICE contracts and money, read from the award records. Every piece we have published on it, oldest first, so you can see what changed and when. The newest is at the bottom.
- July 26, 2026
Piece 1The Contract Came First (on Substack)
ICE solicited the contracts on December 22. It bought the buildings in January. It wrote the environmental review to a number its own planning documents didn’t use — and told no one.
- October 22, 2026
Piece 2First public prediction score: The Contract Came First, Prediction 2 hit
The paper staked seven falsifiable predictions and promised to score them in public. The first one is in: the Williamsport order was extended on the day it expired. Six remain open.
- October 23, 2026
Piece 3ICE Starts a New Consolidated Order at Adelanto Before the Current Ones End
A $53.6 million September 15 order with The GEO Group folds Adelanto and the Desert View Annex into one order on a September cycle, three months before the current $107.7 million and $27.3 million orders end. The record codes it full and open; the number of offers is blank.
- October 23, 2026
Piece 4ICE Signs a Five-Year, One-Source Contract for a Detention Facility in Marana, Arizona
A September 29 contract with Management & Training Corporation is coded not competed, with one offer: a $355.5 million ceiling through 2031, $25.8 million obligated for the first year. ICE's February notice named MTC the sole owner of a facility meeting its needs, for up to 775 detainees.
- October 24, 2026
Piece 5DHS Ratifies More Than 15 Months of Immigration Fines Issued Under a Rule a Federal Court Stayed on Sept. 30
A notice published in the Federal Register dated Monday, October 26, ratifies every final civil penalty decision issued under the 2025 interim fines rule and gives people until Monday, November 16, to email a claim that they were prejudiced. It does not mention that a federal judge stayed that rule, and the fines issued under it, on September 30.
- October 24, 2026
Piece 6ICE Adds a Temporary Detention Facility at Port Isabel, Texas, on a Sole-Source Contract
A September 10 contract with Akima Infrastructure Protection is coded 8(a) sole source, with one offer: $13.75 million obligated and $87.9 million potential value through November 2027. The record gives no bed count. Four construction awards followed at the same site the same month.
- October 24, 2026
Piece 7ICE Opens Its New Alternative-to-Detention Order at Nearly Twice Last Year's Starting Amount
A $41.0 million September 16 order with B.I. Incorporated for ISAP V opens at about 1.87 times last year's $22.0 million opening. Last year's order ended at $228.5 million, including $86.4 million described as funding for skip tracing. One year of openings is not a trend.
- October 29, 2026
Piece 8A short-term tent facility, used for longer stays: what the DHS Inspector General found in El Paso
At ICE's El Paso tent site, since closed, the average booking lasted 108 hours under a 72-hour standard, and 44% of 15,975 bookings ran longer, per DHS inspector general report OIG-27-01 (Oct. 26).
- October 30, 2026
Piece 9ICE adds $11.44 million to keep the Aurora detention order running, and raises rates at the South Texas processing center
An Oct. 27 modification runs GEO's Aurora, Colo. order to Dec. 15. The same day, ICE updated rates and authorized back pay at Pearsall, Texas, under a wage-law adjustment recorded at $0.00.
- November 1, 2026
Piece 10ICE extends the Hagerstown detention order a second time: the money is still moving
Modification P00005, signed Oct. 29, moves the Maryland order's end date to Jan. 15, 2027 and adds no money. Across four tracked ICE orders, $506.8 million is obligated and $32.3 million paid out.