Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is establishing new office locations in Orange County, as part of a nationwide expansion effort that has raised concerns among local officials.
According to documents obtained by Wired magazine, ICE is leasing space at an office complex on the 2000 block of Main Street in Irvine, near a child care center and John Wayne Airport. The agency is also securing space at the federal building in Santa Ana, which is reportedly located near schools and child care facilities.
“This is news to me,” Irvine Mayor Larry Agran told the Orange County Register. “We try to maintain some channels of communication with Border Patrol, with ICE, with Homeland Security. It’s not easy to do. They’re not very cooperative at all, and not letting us know what their planning, what their activities consist of.”
The expansion comes as part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which has provided approximately $80 billion in funding to more than double ICE’s workforce to 22,000 officers. The General Services Administration (GSA) has reportedly been tasked with securing 250 new locations nationwide to accommodate this growth.
Internal records show that the GSA has been instructed to fast-track these leases under an “unusual or compelling urgency” statute, allowing them to bypass standard competition and transparency requirements. According to Fox LA, this secretive process has placed enforcement hubs in densely populated areas throughout California.
Rep. Dave Min, D-Irvine, expressed concern about the development, stating he was “deeply disturbed” by the reports.
“ICE is completely out of control,” Min said. “This secret plan to expand ICE’s presence near sensitive locations, like the child care agency in Irvine, is yet another example of how ICE operations are terrorizing our communities.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, declined to confirm specific office locations, citing “a coordinated campaign of violence” against ICE personnel.
“Is it really news that when a federal agency hires more personnel that they need more space? Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, we have an additional 12,000 ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “That’s a 120% increase in our workforce.”
The news comes amid intensified immigration enforcement operations across Southern California. A recent report revealed approximately $3.7 million in business losses occurred between July to September 2025 due to federal immigration raids in Los Angeles County.
Mayor Agran expressed ongoing concern about ICE’s activities in Irvine. “Obviously, we try to understand what ICE is doing, and where in Orange County and, of course, we’re always concerned about what their activities might be in the city of Irvine,” he said. “So this suggests more than a temporary presence is coming here in Orange County and in Irvine.”
The Irvine Police Department confirmed they learned about the federal lease through media reports. “The referenced location is a privately owned high-rise office building, and at this time, we do not have any additional details,” said Kyle Oldoerp, Irvine Police Department public information officer.
According to Wired’s reporting, the expansion is expected to accelerate as ICE’s legal arm aims to hire 3,500 attorneys in the coming months.
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