Top private prison companies see profits amid administration's immigration crackdown
The country's largest private prison companies are reporting significant profits amid an aggressive push by the Trump administration to increase immigration arrests and detentions.
During earnings calls last week, executives with the firms Geo Group and CoreCivic announced an increase in revenue from new and current contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and discussed their plans to expand their businesses to meet the administration's demands.
"Our business is perfectly aligned with the demands of this moment," said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger. "We are in an unprecedented environment with rapid increases in federal detention populations nationwide and a continuing need for solutions."
CoreCivic reported a total revenue of $538.2 million during their second quarter, a 9.8% increase from the same quarter in 2024.
During the call, Hininger told investors the company is evaluating additional opportunities for expansion and said that CoreCivic facilities are "the most humane, most efficient logistically, have the highest audit compliance scores in their system, and are more secure [and] weatherproof."
Hininger said that while ICE has recently been using "soft-sided solutions" like the tent facilities at Guantanamo Bay and at Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center, he believes the agency "does not see soft-sided facilities as long-term solutions."
"In the days since the election, the message has been pretty darn clear from the administration, DHS leadership, and ICE leadership that detention is going to be the priority," Hininger said, adding that the company has been "working around the clock" to open up bed space and new detention facilities.
Geo Group, ICE's largest contractor, reported total second-quarter revenue of $636.2 million, a 5% increase from the second quarter of 2024.
During their earnings call last week, Geo Group Chairman George Zoley said the utilization of their current ICE contracts increased from 15,000 beds to 20,000 beds, which Zoley said is the highest level of ICE utilization in the company's history.
"All of these efforts are aimed at placing our company in the best competitive position possible to pursue what we continue to believe are unprecedented growth opportunities as a long-standing support services provider for ICE," said Zoley.
"We believe we are uniquely positioned to assist the agency to meet its objectives," Zoley said.
The Geo Group CEO told investors that "given the size" of the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S., the company's view is that in addition to increased detention capacity, the "enforcement of federal immigration laws" could lead to an increase in GPS tracking for individuals.
The company, which has contracted with ICE for over 20 years to manage the agency's electronic monitoring program, currently tracks approximately 183,000 individuals, Zoley said. The tracking program is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of Geo Group.
"Once detention capacity is maximized by the end of the year, we speculate that the focus will likely shift to increasing the use of GPS tracking," Zoley said. "We believe we've taken the necessary resources to significantly and quickly respond to the eventual expansion of [the] Intensive Supervision and Appearance Program (ISAP)."
ICE has for years relied on private companies to house detained migrants, making it a multimillion-dollar business.
As ABC News has previously reported, Geo Group and CoreCivic --- both of whose leadership have long supported Trump --- saw their stock prices immediately spike after Trump's victory in the November election.
