The Department of Homeland Security is actively searching for available coworking space for hundreds of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel across the country, including in Indianapolis, as the agency continues to ramp up immigration enforcement.
In an amended request for information published on April 10, the federal agency cast a wide net for vendors who can fulfill a 12-month lease term for sites with private office and coworking space across 90 cities with the ability to scale up or down based on government demand.
In addition to Indianapolis, other prospective locations include cities ranging in size from Boston, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco to Westerville, Ohio, and Huntsville, Alabama. The agency said that the list of cities is subject to change based on government need.
ICE did not explain how the coworking space fits into its plans or how many of the 300 employees could be stationed in Indianapolis. The agency already has a field office on Woodland Drive in Indianapolis and recently leased roughly 20,200 rentable square feet of office space at an undisclosed location in Carmel for an annual rate of $477,052, according to federal lease records.
When reached for comment, ICE deferred to the U.S. General Services Administration which manages the federal government’s real estate portfolio.
A spokesperson for Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office said the city is not involved in the federal procurement process and had no prior knowledge of the RFI.
“We don’t welcome this presence in our community,” said Emily Kaufmann, assistant director of communications for the mayor’s office.
Democratic U.S. Rep. André Carson Office, meanwhile, is watching for any developments on the solicitation.
ICE’s footprint has greatly expanded under the second Trump administration with the goal of detaining and deporting more undocumented immigrants. The administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress approved last year, infused the agency with an additional $75 billion to detain and deport immigrants, hire more deportation officers, and expand detention space.
Efforts to expand ICE’s presence in cities across the U.S. have often been met with pushback. Carmel residents have spoken out against ICE recently leasing a privately-owned office space as overflow for administrative personnel working in the Woodland Drive building. City officials said they were never informed of the plans.
ICE has yet to reveal the location of the office space and a Carmel address is still being withheld from the government’s lease database. However, WIRED Magazine reported in February its sources revealed Penn on Pkwy office park as the location.
Another recent plan called for adding more than 92,000 additional beds across the U.S., but several communities in other states rebuffed that plan after learning that DHS had purchased warehouses in their communities for ICE detention. Indianapolis was considered for an 8,500 bed facility.
During an April 9 press conference outside of Miami Correctional Facility, Carson said his office had made inquiries about that plan but had yet to receive a definitive or satisfactory answer about whether an Indianapolis ICE facility is still in the works.
When reached for comment about the new solicitation, the U.S. General Services Administration didn’t provide any details, saying in a statement it’s following all lease procurement procedures in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
“GSA is committed to working with all of our partner agencies to meet their workspace needs,” public affairs officer Leonard Buchanan said. “GSA remains focused on supporting this administration’s goal of optimizing the federal footprint, and providing the best workplaces for our federal agencies to meet their mission.”
Contact IndyStar investigative reporter Alexandria Burris at aburris@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @allyburris and on Bluesky at @allymburris.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ICE is searching for coworking space in 90 cities, including Indianapolis
Reporting by Alexandria Burris, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
