Immigration and Customs Enforcement would purchase more than a dozen empty warehouses across the United States to massively expand its capacity to detain people deemed to be in the country illegally, which in turn would spike deportations. A year into Mr. Trump’s term, it had bought 11 facilities at a cost of $1 billion.

But in a major turnabout, the agency is planning to offload seven warehouses purchased for more than $700 million by either giving them to other federal agencies or selling them outright, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

The decision to sharply scale back the warehouse plan is a rejection of a signature initiative under the previous homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, who pushed the boundaries of what the government can do to aggressively round up potential deportees. The new secretary, Markwayne Mullin, who had privately expressed skepticism about the plan, has said publicly that he wants the agency to be quieter about how it carries out immigration enforcement.

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The agency appears to still be moving forward with four of the warehouses purchased for detention purposes, in San Antonio and Socorro, Texas; Surprise, Ariz.; and Hagerstown, Md. However, a federal judge has blocked work on the Maryland facility. It was not immediately clear why the agency decided to proceed with those four spaces for detention. ICE also plans to buy immigrant detention facilities from private prison companies that it already contracts with, according to documents.

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But the biggest challenge has been the proliferation of environmental lawsuits across the country.

For months, ICE has faced serious legal challenges over whether the agency adhered to a federal law that requires federal agencies to examine the impact of their projects on the local environment. The lawsuits have set the agency back significantly.

A judge in Maryland blocked ICE from taking any action at a warehouse in the state that it purchased for around $100 million. ICE also told a federal judge in New Jersey the agency would take no action at a warehouse there until it conducted further environmental tests. The agency promised the same in a Michigan federal court as well. Justice Department officials have expressed concern to ICE that the lack of reviews has left the agency vulnerable to more legal roadblocks.

Now, the agency plans to offload warehouses in Michigan and New Jersey, the documents obtained by The Times show.