Who profits from a $45 billion investment in immigrant detention?
Two companies are likely to gain the most from the more than tripling of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s annual detention budget: CoreCivic and the GEO Group.
“We are in an unprecedented environment, with rapid increases in federal detention populations nationwide,” CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger said in the company’s second quarter earnings call.
CoreCivic’s revenue from ICE last quarter went up by 17%, considering the “highest detention populations ever recorded by ICE, which has been our largest customer for over 10 years,” Hininger said.
ICE pays roughly $165 a day for each person held in detention. More arrests mean more money for these companies.
And that’s exactly what GEO Group’s George Zoley said happened during the second quarter earnings call, citing the “highest level of ICE utilization in our company's history.”
Now, they’re making thousands more beds available as billions in new funding comes through. “The intensity has really picked up,” Hininger said.
Under new contracts with ICE, private prison companies are filling up detention centers in Texas, California, New Jersey, Michigan, and Georgia, bringing in millions in revenue.
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/08/18/who-profits-from-detaining-immigrants
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Bondi failed to identify every single one of these as potential conflicts of interest:
Employment as a partner at Ballard Partners: Bondi did not list her current role as a lobbyist as a potential conflict of interest, nor any of the specific work she’s done for her clients that might implicate her role as the chief federal law enforcement officer.
She’s lobbied on behalf of more than 30 different clients, including corporations like Amazon and Uber, government contractors like private prisons, and the government of Qatar.
Lobbying on behalf of private prisons: Bondi lobbied for The GEO Group, a private prison company that has faced criticism for safety violations, providing inadequate health care, and poor management practices.
These actions have negatively impacted the welfare and rights of incarcerated individuals and immigration detainees, and The GEO Group stands to earn hundreds of millions of dollars during the Trump Administration, as ICE is its largest source of revenue.
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/pam-bondis-extensive-lobbying-for-wealthy-special-interests-and-foreign-government-poses-serious-conflict-of-interest
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