Photograph Source: Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General – Public Domain
Right after the election, Wall Street observers noted that the stock prices for two companies – GEO Group and CoreCivic – soared right away. What was happening? Trump’s threatened policy of mass deportation would be a boon for the private prison industry, and these two companies are the biggest players.
The White House’s pledge to ramp up actions against immigrants (undocumented or otherwise) will require more than a doubling of the available beds at facilities around the country. These two companies in particular are positioned to take advantage of the billions of dollars they expect the Republican Congress to allocate for these purposes. On earnings calls, company leaders have expressed enthusiasm. “The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our country’s history,” said founder George Zoley. His counterpart at CoreCivic, Damon Hininger, called it “truly one of the most exciting periods in my career,” adding that they were expecting “the most significant growth in our company’s history.”
Private companies operate many of the detention facilities that are already used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and thus the rapid growth expected will involve expanding existing facilities or building new ones. The Washington Post reports that CoreCivic and GEO own 16 idle facilities; both companies expect to double the number of immigrants they are currently detaining.
There are well-documented reports of substandard care and other dangerous conditions at these and other privately-run detention centers. Indeed, some of the facilities that are likely to be re-opened have been singled out for being notably dangerous.
The companies that dominate the industry maintain close ties to government agencies. At GEO, one former acting director of ICE from the first Trump administration is the head of client relations, while another top official from the Biden administration is now an executive vice president. In addition to this revolving door, both companies made substantial campaign contributions to support Trump; as the New York Times noted, “in the last election cycle nearly all of the donations went to Republicans. A GEO Group subsidiary gave more than $2 million to Republican PACs that accept unlimited donations, with the bulk going to groups that supported House Republicans and Mr. Trump.” CoreCivic donated $500,000 to the Trump inauguration.
Much of what happens next will depend on upcoming budget negotiations, but the Senate Republican budget blueprint could allocate an increase of as much as $175 billion to immigration enforcement. These figures include a range of other services, including transportation and GPS tracking – GEO and CoreCivic are both heavily involved in those businesses as well. It is no surprise that the CEOs of these companies can barely contain their enthusiasm for the policies being proposed by the Trump administration.
This first appeared on CEPR.
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