What ICE contracts were awarded through no-bid processes in 2024–2026 and what are their public records?
Executive summary
Reports, watchdog filings and local coverage identify a series of high-profile ICE awards in 2024–2026 that were issued without full competitive procurements — notably a roughly $29.9 million no‑bid task for facility planning to KPB Services LLC, large commercial deportation‑flight contracts tied to CSI Aviation and allies, and renewed surveillance/forensics buys such as an $11 million Cellebrite award — with public records scattered across ICE’s contracts portal, investigative FOIAs, local reporting and watchdog databases [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. The documentary trail is incomplete in places: some contract notices and objections appear in news reporting and watchdog releases, while the primary procurement documents and full terms are variably available through ICE’s official contracts page, FOIA repositories, and investigative reports [5] [4] [2].
1. The Kansas “mega‑center” planning contract: what was awarded and where the record lives
Local and national reporting show DHS/ICE awarded a no‑bid contract valued at roughly $29.9 million to KPB Services LLC — an entity tied to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation — for “due diligence services and concept design for processing centers and mega centers” tied to plans for renovating warehouses into detention space, with the initial coverage and contracting figure publicly reported by local outlets and cited in national follow‑ups [1]; the contract itself is cited as public record and should, in principle, be accessible through ICE’s contracts page or through specific FOIA requests to ICE/DHS [5] [1]. Reporting shows lawmakers demanded briefings and questioned why a no‑bid vehicle was used rather than an open competition, but the administration’s public justification and the complete procurement file were not fully reproduced in those articles [1].
2. No‑bid deportation‑flight contracts and political connections
Investigations and watchdog reporting allege a large no‑bid award for deportation flights tied to a politically connected New Mexico donor and operator (CSI Aviation and associated partners), with critics pointing to campaign contributions and a competitor’s lawsuit claiming an “absurdly high” bid that could burden taxpayers by hundreds of millions; the ProgressNow New Mexico summary synthesizes POGO findings alleging the award followed significant political donations [2]. Subcontract relationships (for example, GEO Transport, Inc. handling flights for GEO Group) and links to private prison operators are described in reporting, and procurement disputes were documented in news coverage — though access to the full contract award packages and redacted justifications requires FOIA or federal procurement record searches beyond the summarized articles [2].
3. Surveillance, forensics and renewals: Cellebrite and the tech shopping spree
Civil‑liberties organizations and investigative outlets report ICE renewed an approximately $11 million contract with Cellebrite to unlock and image mobile devices; watchdog analyses frame this as part of a broader “surveillance shopping spree” as ICE’s budget expanded, citing federal spending summaries and procurement notices [3]. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other observers direct researchers to federal procurement databases and ICE’s contracts portal to find the obligating documents, though consolidated, human‑readable summaries of scope and privacy safeguards are often absent from press accounts and require digging into contract attachments and FOIA releases [3] [5].
4. Broader patterns, limits of public records, and competing narratives
Multiple outlets and watchdogs (AP, Marshall Project, NIJC, Forbes compilations) portray a pattern in 2024–2026 of ICE turning to no‑bid or expedited awards to scale detention and removal operations, and of large technology and logistics firms collecting sizeable ICE revenues; these narratives are supported by contract listings and FOIA collections but also contested by procurement officials who point to urgency clauses, existing vehicle authorities, or socio‑economic set‑asides as legal bases for noncompetitive awards — legal and bureaucratic rationales that are not always fully reproduced in press summaries [6] [7] [4]. Comprehensive primary records reside in ICE’s contracts portal and federal procurement databases, but piecing together claimants, dollar flows, subcontract chains and legal justifications requires targeted FOIA requests and database searches [5] [4] [8].
5. How to follow the paper trail: where the public records are and what’s missing
The authoritative starting points for confirming any no‑bid ICE award are ICE’s own contracts page and federal procurement databases (USAspending, SAM.gov), supplemented by FOIA releases coordinated by advocacy groups (NIJC’s Transparency Project) and investigative outlets that publish obtained documents; these sources contain award notices, obligation amounts and some contract documents, but full task orders, redactions and classified annexes may be withheld, meaning researchers must file FOIAs or use procurement tracers to assemble a complete public record [5] [4] [3]. Reported high‑profile no‑bid awards in 2024–2026 — the KPB $29.9M planning award, deportation flight contracts tied to CSI Aviation, and the Cellebrite renewal — are documented in news and watchdog reporting, but obtaining the full contract text, legal justifications for noncompetition, and all attachments will require consulting ICE’s records and FOIA repositories [1] [2] [3].