ICE paid almost $500 million to acquire a private prison in Minnesota that was previously offered to the state for just $75 million, according to a report.

The immigration agency, which answers to the Department of Homeland Security, paid $495.6 million in August for the vacant Prairie Correctional Facility in small-town Appleton in response to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration on the assumption that more holding space for inmates would be needed.

However, an investigation by Kare 11, citing newly unsealed emails, has found that the seller, Tennessee-based private prison operator CoreCivic, previously offered to sell the exact same facility to the state of Minnesota for just $75 million in May 2025.

That price even included upgrades to the facility, which was opened 34 years ago and has been closed for the last 16, but was capable of housing 1,600 inmates at its peak.

The state ultimately decided against the deal at the time on the basis that it might be difficult to staff Prairie Correctional given its remote location – a nearly three-hour drive from Minneapolis-St. Paul – and costly to build new homes to accommodate the approximately 500 employees required to run it, concerns seemingly not shared by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith called on Congress to investigate after the report.

“I’m calling on House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, and the House Oversight Committee, to immediately begin investigating why Trump paid almost half a billion to a Trump donor for a prison worth just $75 million,” Ellison stated. “Trump scamming taxpayers out of almost half a billion dollars is outrageous, especially at a time when Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran are already raising prices for Minnesotans.”

Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told Kare 11 investigative reporter AJ Lagoe that he was “stunned” at the federal government paying six times more for the prison than its prior valuation, an additional cost to the taxpayer of $420.6 million in a state where Republicans have been in uproar about alleged benefit fraud.

“It’s unexplainable,” Schnell said. “Obviously I was stunned. It’s beyond comprehension… I don’t know how they could justify this amount.”

The outlet found that the Appleton prison was one of four CoreCivic had sold to the government this summer for a combined $2.2 billion, the others situated in Kansas and California.

The company also stands to make a further estimated $75 million annually by operating the Prairie Correctional facility in Minnesota over the next five years.

Kare 11 further uncovered federal records revealing that CoreCivic had donated $500,000 to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee.

A spokesperson for the company said independent appraisers had used a “cost-based methodology” to value the facility but added: “The federal government ultimately determined the sale price following its assessment process.”

The Independent has reached out to the DHS and to ICE for comment.

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report in September warning of an “urgent need” to stop ICE wasting taxpayer dollars, citing the agency’s decision to spend $1.07 billion on 11 warehouses earlier in the year with a view to converting them into detention centers before ultimately changing course and losing $20 million in the process.

“ICE’s purchase of existing detention facilities has the potential to result in waste,” it warned. “ICE has not assessed the long-term affordability of owning these facilities.”