In the United States, immigration enforcement has become less about borders and more about margins. Profit margins. At the center of this convergence are two familiar corporate fixtures: CoreCivic and The GEO Group. Once traditional prison contractors, they’ve evolved into full-time beneficiaries of federal policy drift, especially the kind that turns due process into detention quotas.
They don’t just detain migrants. They warehouse them. They profit from them. And they quietly help shape the policies that keep them coming. In 2017, both companies opened their wallets for Trump’s inaugural fund, just as federal contracts began to fatten. By 2020, wary of public backlash, they shifted strategy, funneling money into political action committees and lobbying firms to preserve ICE budgets and stall reform. Come 2024, with Trumpism back in full stride, the money moved again, this time through donor networks with patriotic branding and very little transparency.
Now we get talk of shipping U.S. citizens yes, citizens to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, a facility notorious for its brutality and complete insulation from U.S. constitutional oversight. No judge. No lawyer. No appeal. Just a one-way ticket to a regime proud to call itself a “cool dictatorship.” It’s a stunt with no real legal footing, but a very real political purpose: make cruelty the message, and let the legal scholars clean up the mess later.
As Canadians inch toward another election, we watch this theatre unfold next door where immigrants become the easy foil for every populist speech and every cheap policy stunt. The script isn’t original, but it travels well. Canada’s conservatives have already begun stirring the same pot, raising the same bogus alarms, hoping no one notices it’s the same tired playbook with a maple twist.
Today, more than 70 percent of detained immigrants in the U.S. are held in private facilities. These companies don’t just run them. They own them. Lease them. And lock in profits through guaranteed occupancy clauses. Their biggest client is ICE. And as you’ll see, the detention business isn’t just shaped by immigration policy. It helps write it.
This article explores the entanglement between immigration enforcement and private prison profits, revealing how ICE contracts have reshaped business models and political incentives.
Private Prisons in the U.S – A Brief History
The roots of the private prison industry in the United States trace back to the early 1980s, during a political era marked by tough-on-crime rhetoric and mass incarceration policies. Facing overcrowded public prisons and mounting incarceration rates driven by the War on Drugs, federal and state governments began outsourcing prison operations to private firms. CoreCivic (then Corrections Corporation of America) was founded in 1983, becoming the first for-profit company to manage correctional facilities in the U.S. The GEO Group followed shortly after, originally operating under the name Wackenhut Corrections Corporation.
In the early decades, these companies made their profits primarily through contracts to operate state and federal prisons for criminal offenders. They expanded rapidly throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, often building their facilities and leasing them back to governments, a model that proved highly lucrative. By the mid-2000s, however, incarceration growth began to plateau. In search of new revenue streams, private prison companies turned their attention to the emerging frontier of immigration detention. With growing national anxiety around border security and unauthorized migration, companies like CoreCivic and GEO positioned themselves as indispensable partners to federal agencies such as ICE, offering turnkey detention solutions at scale.
How CoreCivic and GEO Group Make Money
CoreCivic and The GEO Group are prime examples of how the incarceration business operates at scale. These companies generate profits through several distinct but interconnected revenue streams, primarily relying on government contracts with federal, state, and local agencies. Their business model is structured around providing a range of detention and correctional services, often at a fraction of the cost of public alternatives. The most significant source of income for CoreCivic and GEO comes from facility management contracts. They manage a vast network of detention centers, including prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities, which are leased to federal agencies like ICE or the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
These contracts are often long-term, providing a steady stream of income. In many cases, they include guaranteed minimum occupancy clauses, ensuring the companies are paid even if the facility is not operating at full capacity. Beyond housing inmates, these firms also profit from transportation services, which include the movement of detainees between facilities or to and from court hearings. Additionally, both CoreCivic and GEO Group have expanded into electronic monitoring, providing ankle bracelets and tracking services for individuals on parole or awaiting trial. This is a growing market due to the rise in alternatives to incarceration.
An often overlooked aspect of their business model is real estate investments. Both companies operate as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which allows them to pass on certain tax advantages to shareholders. This means they profit from operating detention facilities and owning the land and buildings they lease to the government, further securing their revenue streams. The financial incentives to expand detention capacity are clear: larger facilities mean more detainees and more detainees mean higher revenue. This structure fuels an industry intrinsically tied to expanding detention policies, particularly in the immigration sector.
Immigration Policy as a Revenue Engine
Over the past two decades, shifts in U.S. immigration policy have played a pivotal role in reshaping the financial landscape of the private prison industry. What began as a response to growing incarceration rates in the 1980s has evolved into a highly profitable model built increasingly on the detention of immigrants, many of whom are held for civil, not criminal, violations. The post-9/11 era marked a turning point. With the formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the expansion of immigration enforcement through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention became a core tool in national security strategy.
Programs like Secure Communities, launched in 2008, allowed local law enforcement to share fingerprint data with ICE, funneling thousands of individuals into detention. This policy, later made mandatory under the Obama administration, caused a dramatic increase in immigrant detentions and, in turn, created opportunities for private prison operators to secure long-term federal contracts.
The Trump administration’s 2018 “zero tolerance” policy, which led to widespread family separations, further intensified demand for detention space. During this period, CoreCivic and GEO Group received major ICE contracts to manage overflow and operate new detention centers. GEO’s Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California and CoreCivic’s South Texas Family Residential Center became symbols of the administration’s hardline approach.
Title 42, introduced under the Trump administration and extended into the Biden era, invoked public health emergency powers to expedite migrant expulsions. This policy led to increased detentions and contract extensions for private companies as enforcement prioritized border apprehensions. Each of these policies effectively expanded the market for private detention. With every shift toward more punitive immigration enforcement, CoreCivic and GEO’s financial reports reflected a familiar trend: rising occupancy, increased revenues, and renewed investment in immigration-specific infrastructure.
ICE Contracts: The New Backbone of Private Detention
The financial bedrock of today’s private prison industry lies in its entanglement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Over the past decade, CoreCivic and The GEO Group have increasingly relied on ICE contracts to sustain their operations, transforming what was once a diversified incarceration business into one deeply dependent on immigration enforcement.
ICE contracts now account for a significant portion of both companies’ revenue. In GEO Group’s 2023 annual report, over 50% of its total revenue was tied to contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE. CoreCivic reported that its federal contracts, primarily with ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service, made up nearly 43% of its $2 billion revenue that year.
These contracts typically include per diem rates for detainees, often guaranteeing minimum bed occupancy regardless of actual use, ensuring a steady income stream. Recent examples illustrate this reliance. In 2022, CoreCivic secured a multi-year extension on its contract with ICE to operate the South Texas Family Residential Center, the nation’s largest immigrant detention facility. Despite public scrutiny and legal challenges, GEO Group also renewed and expanded several detention agreements, including those for its Karnes County and Adelanto facilities. In total, these contracts often span tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and include incentives for capacity increases.
This financial dependence has reshaped corporate strategies. Quarterly investor calls from both firms emphasize maintaining and expanding ICE partnerships, and new facility investments are frequently immigration-focused. In many cases, companies repurpose shuttered criminal prisons for immigration use, reinforcing a structural incentive to align their growth with restrictive immigration policies.
In effect, ICE has become the lifeline of the private detention business model. As immigration enforcement expands or contracts, so does these corporations’ economic fate.
Structural Incentives and Political Influence
The growth of private immigration detention is not simply a byproduct of government outsourcing. It is the result of a well-established system of political influence. Companies like CoreCivic and The GEO Group have spent years cultivating relationships with policymakers, lobbying for funding increases, and shaping the public narrative around enforcement. Both firms have consistently engaged in direct lobbying and political contributions. According to data from OpenSecrets, The GEO Group spent over $1.5 million on federal lobbying in 2017, much of it focused on immigration and detention-related legislation. Similarly, CoreCivic has maintained a steady presence in Washington, pushing for policies that expand detention infrastructure or oppose reforms that would reduce incarceration rates.
Political contributions from these companies, their executives, and affiliated political action committees (PACs) are often channeled toward candidates who support tough-on-immigration policies. In 2016, both companies made large donations to the Trump inaugural committee, just as the new administration signaled a crackdown on unauthorized immigration. These contributions coincided with a reversal of the Obama-era plan to phase out private prison contracts at the federal level.
Beyond campaign donations and lobbying, the industry also benefits from the so-called “revolving door.” Former ICE and DHS officials have taken positions on corporate boards or consulting with private prison firms, creating potential conflicts of interest and blurring the line between policy and profit. These dynamics highlight a troubling structural reality. When corporations profit from detention, they also gain a financial stake in expanding enforcement. The result is a system in which the drive for revenue can subtly but powerfully shape the laws and policies that govern human liberty.
Conclusion
What started as a side hustle in mass incarceration has become the main event. The private prison industry doesn’t just ride the wave of immigration enforcement—it builds the current. CoreCivic and GEO Group aren’t adapting to policy. They’re investing in it. Their profits hinge on bodies behind bars and the continuation of a system that treats migrants as inventory. ICE isn’t just a client. It’s the business model. And every time the detention machine gears up, so do their earnings.
This isn’t enforcement. It’s enterprise. Plain and simple. And the longer we pretend otherwise, the more padded those shareholder calls get.
