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The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Companies aiding Trump's immigration crackdown see ‘extraordinary' revenues
The tech, surveillance and private prison providers arming Donald Trump's massive expansion and weaponization of immigration enforcement are running a victory lap after reporting their latest financial results. Palantir, the tech firm, and Geo Group and CoreCivic, the private prison and surveillance companies, said this week that they brought in more money than Wall Street expected them to, thanks to the administration's crackdown on immigrants. 'Well, as usual, I've been cautioned to be a little modest about our bombastic numbers,' said Alex Karp, the Palantir chief executive, in an investor call earlier this week. Then he crowed about the company's 'extraordinary numbers' and his 'enormous pride' in its success. Private prison company executives, during their respective calls, could barely contain their excitement, flagging to investors opportunities for 'unprecedented growth' in the realm of immigration detention. Palantir saw 53% growth in revenue from US government contracts in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period the year prior and surpassed $1bn in total quarterly revenue for the first time. Analysts had expected the company to bring in $939.4m in revenue. The company, which connects and analyzes disparate sets of data to enable its customers to build products with that information, brings in the majority of its revenue from government contracts. Its biggest US customer is the Department of Defense, where the US army, which announced a $10bn agreement with Palantir last week, is housed. On the immigration side, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deepened its partnership with Palantir since the start of the Trump administration, which it's been working with since 2011. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency primarily engaged in arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants, most recently announced a $30m contract with Palantir to build a database that makes its deportation and detention machine more efficient. 'Palantir gets attacked just because we help make this country even better, because we support the values, because we defend it,' Karp said. 'And us being able to win while having an opinion does have an impact on the world, if only because the people who think we are wrong are not good, have to be a little jealous and suffer.' While Palantir is making it easier to deport immigrants, private prison corporations GeoGroup and CoreCivic are bringing in more money than expected helping detain them. GeoGroup reported $636.2m in revenue this quarter, beating analyst predictions of $623.4m, while CoreCivic announced $538.2m in the second quarter of this year, a 9.8% increase from last year's second quarter. George Zoley, the GeoGroup company chief executive, said its detention facilities are fuller than they've ever been, with Ice using 20,000 beds across 21 GeoGroup detention centers, about one-third of the estimated 57,000 beds in Ice detention centers across the country. GeoGroup executives also said in the call they have begun exploring detention centers at US military sites, one of the many 'unprecedented growth opportunities' Zoley spoke of during the call. While there has been a big boost to GeoGroup's detention business, its surveillance subsidiary is not yet seeing the massive growth company executives predicted earlier this year. Executives said they expected the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) – an immigrant monitoring initiative run by the company's subsidiary BI Inc for 20 years – would expand beyond its previous peak of 370,000 immigrants being monitored. The number of immigrants who are currently being surveilled by Ice has hovered around 183,000 for the past few months. '[ICE hasn't] communicated at this time the expansion of ISAP,' Zoley said on the investor call. 'Their focus is intensely on scaling up the detention capacity.' That said, the company expects ISAP numbers to start increasing next year once 'detention capacity is maximized'. The Trump administration has signaled a desire to increase the number of immigrants surveilled by ankle monitors. Many immigrants have described ISAP surveillance as intrusive, at times physically painful and inefficient. In the call with investors, CoreCivic executives revealed they have offered Ice around 30,000 beds to detain immigrants throughout the company's nationwide network. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act legislation was passed by Congress and signed by Trump last month, providing DHS a massive influx of cash. Ice was given $45bn to expand its detention network. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion Ice currently has funds for around 41,500 beds but is currently detaining around 57,000 people throughout its detention network. With the incoming influx of cash, the agency will have the funds to likely detain thousands upon thousands more – and private prison contractors are ready. 'Our business is perfectly aligned with the demands of this moment,' said Damon T Hininger, the CEO of CoreCivic, during Thursday's call with investors. 'We are in an unprecedented environment, with rapid increases in federal detention populations nationwide and a continuing need for solutions we provide.' As the office of management and budget readies the finances from the spending package, private prison companies have wasted no time in selling their services to immigration officials. 'As we know, budgets are moral documents, and last month Congress decided to fully fund cruelty aimed at immigrant communities at the expense of vital programs that serve all Americans,' said Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director for the Detention Watch Network. 'Private prison companies have been giddy since last November about the prospect of making money at the expense of all of us.' Since Trump took office again this year, CoreCivic has modified, extended or signed new contracts to detain immigrants at eight different facilities, according to company financial disclosures. Geo Group has done the same with five different facilities. The earning calls from the two companies come as immigrant rights organizations and human rights groups criticize conditions inside immigration jails nationwide. Setareh added that private prison companies' profits come from 'the destruction of human lives as directed by the Trump administration and made possible by the majority Congress'. A CoreCivic facility in New Mexico where immigrants and federal prisoners are detained, the Cibola correctional facility, is currently under investigation by the FBI for an 'epidemic' of drug trafficking, as the Guardian recently revealed. At least 15 people have died inside that facility since 2018. Last September, the company pitched Cibola to Ice as an ideal place to detain more immigrants.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Companies aiding Trump's immigration crackdown see ‘extraordinary' revenues
The tech, surveillance and private prison providers arming Donald Trump's massive expansion and weaponization of immigration enforcement are running a victory lap after reporting their latest financial results. Palantir, the tech firm, and Geo Group and CoreCivic, the private prison and surveillance companies, said this week that they brought in more money than Wall Street expected them to, thanks to the administration's crackdown on immigrants. 'Well, as usual, I've been cautioned to be a little modest about our bombastic numbers,' said Alex Karp, the Palantir chief executive, in an investor call earlier this week. Then he crowed about the company's 'extraordinary numbers' and his 'enormous pride' in its success. Private prison company executives, during their respective calls, could barely contain their excitement, flagging to investors opportunities for 'unprecedented growth' in the realm of immigration detention. Palantir saw 53% growth in revenue from US government contracts in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period the year prior and surpassed $1bn in total quarterly revenue for the first time. Analysts had expected the company to bring in $939.4m in revenue. The company, which connects and analyzes disparate sets of data to enable its customers to build products with that information, brings in the majority of its revenue from government contracts. Its biggest US customer is the Department of Defense, where the US army, which announced a $10bn agreement with Palantir last week, is housed. On the immigration side, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deepened its partnership with Palantir since the start of the Trump administration, which it's been working with since 2011. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency primarily engaged in arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants, most recently announced a $30m contract with Palantir to build a database that makes its deportation and detention machine more efficient. 'Palantir gets attacked just because we help make this country even better, because we support the values, because we defend it,' Karp said. 'And us being able to win while having an opinion does have an impact on the world, if only because the people who think we are wrong are not good, have to be a little jealous and suffer.' While Palantir is making it easier to deport immigrants, private prison corporations GeoGroup and CoreCivic are bringing in more money than expected helping detain them. GeoGroup reported $636.2m in revenue this quarter, beating analyst predictions of $623.4m, while CoreCivic announced $538.2m in the second quarter of this year, a 9.8% increase from last year's second quarter. George Zoley, the GeoGroup company chief executive, said its detention facilities are fuller than they've ever been, with Ice using 20,000 beds across 21 GeoGroup detention centers, about one-third of the estimated 57,000 beds in Ice detention centers across the country. GeoGroup executives also said in the call they have begun exploring detention centers at US military sites, one of the many 'unprecedented growth opportunities' Zoley spoke of during the call. While there has been a big boost to GeoGroup's detention business, its surveillance subsidiary is not yet seeing the massive growth company executives predicted earlier this year. Executives said they expected the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) – an immigrant monitoring initiative run by the company's subsidiary BI Inc for 20 years – would expand beyond its previous peak of 370,000 immigrants being monitored. The number of immigrants who are currently being surveilled by Ice has hovered around 183,000 for the past few months. '[ICE hasn't] communicated at this time the expansion of ISAP,' Zoley said on the investor call. 'Their focus is intensely on scaling up the detention capacity.' That said, the company expects ISAP numbers to start increasing next year once 'detention capacity is maximized'. The Trump administration has signaled a desire to increase the number of immigrants surveilled by ankle monitors. Many immigrants have described ISAP surveillance as intrusive, at times physically painful and inefficient. In the call with investors, CoreCivic executives revealed they have offered Ice around 30,000 beds to detain immigrants throughout the company's nationwide network. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act legislation was passed by Congress and signed by Trump last month, providing DHS a massive influx of cash. Ice was given $45bn to expand its detention network. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion Ice currently has funds for around 41,500 beds but is currently detaining around 57,000 people throughout its detention network. With the incoming influx of cash, the agency will have the funds to likely detain thousands upon thousands more – and private prison contractors are ready. 'Our business is perfectly aligned with the demands of this moment,' said Damon T Hininger, the CEO of CoreCivic, during Thursday's call with investors. 'We are in an unprecedented environment, with rapid increases in federal detention populations nationwide and a continuing need for solutions we provide.' As the office of management and budget readies the finances from the spending package, private prison companies have wasted no time in selling their services to immigration officials. 'As we know, budgets are moral documents, and last month Congress decided to fully fund cruelty aimed at immigrant communities at the expense of vital programs that serve all Americans,' said Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director for the Detention Watch Network. 'Private prison companies have been giddy since last November about the prospect of making money at the expense of all of us.' Since Trump took office again this year, CoreCivic has modified, extended or signed new contracts to detain immigrants at eight different facilities, according to company financial disclosures. Geo Group has done the same with five different facilities. The earning calls from the two companies come as immigrant rights organizations and human rights groups criticize conditions inside immigration jails nationwide. Setareh added that private prison companies' profits come from 'the destruction of human lives as directed by the Trump administration and made possible by the majority Congress'. A CoreCivic facility in New Mexico where immigrants and federal prisoners are detained, the Cibola correctional facility, is currently under investigation by the FBI for an 'epidemic' of drug trafficking, as the Guardian recently revealed. At least 15 people have died inside that facility since 2018. Last September, the company pitched Cibola to Ice as an ideal place to detain more immigrants.
The Sun
07-08-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Private prison profits surge under Trump immigration crackdown
NEW YORK: One of America's largest private prison operators has capitalised on President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies through soaring profits and expanded detention facilities. Geo Group announced a $300 million share repurchase programme following a $29.1 million quarterly profit, reversing last year's $32.5 million loss. Revenue grew 4.8% to $636.2 million as the company added thousands of detention beds nationwide to meet ICE demand. Executive Chairman George Zoley acknowledged logistical hurdles in ICE's plan to hire 10,000 staff, calling it 'very expensive and very complicated.' The Florida-based firm expects four new facilities to generate $240 million annually when fully operational in 2026. Another 5,900 idle beds across six locations could produce $310 million yearly if utilised by immigration authorities. Zoley noted Republican-led states like Florida and Texas are cooperating to address ICE's projected need for 100,000 detention beds. Congress recently tripled ICE's four-year detention budget to $45 billion under Trump's fiscal package. CoreCivic, another major prison operator, also raised financial targets after quarterly profits more than doubled to $38.5 million. Geo Group shares closed 2.6% higher following the earnings report. - AFP
Arab News
06-08-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Trump immigration crackdown boosts private prison profits
NEW YORK: One of the biggest US private prison companies announced a share repurchase program on Wednesday, the latest sign of an industry boom from President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. Geo Group, one of the two leading US private prison companies, said the White House's policies will fuel their growth for the foreseeable future, even as executives pointed to staffing and infrastructure limitations that could constrain the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's target of hiring 10,000 workers is 'very expensive and very complicated,' said Geo Executive Chairman George Zoley, predicting it will 'take a long time' to reach that figure. 'You need more people to go across the country and identify people who are here unlawfully,' Zoley said on a conference call. 'One person doesn't go out and do this job by themselves. It's a whole team of people.' Florida-based Geo, which is adding thousands of beds for detainees at sites around the United States, reported profits of $29.1 million after losing $32.5 million in the year-ago period. Revenues rose 4.8 percent to $636.2 million. The company, which is also seeing growth in its transportation business for ICE, said its board had authorized $300 million in share repurchases. Company officials expect more of a revenue increase in 2026 from the ICE crackdown. By that point, four facilities currently being activated will be at capacity, resulting in annual revenues of $240 million. Geo also has another 5,900 beds at six company facilities that are currently idle. If fully utilized by ICE, they could yield another $310 million in annual revenues, Zoley said. But company officials suggested a widely-discussed Washington target of one million deported annually could be difficult in light of the constraints facing the operation. Trump's multi-year fiscal package approved by Congress in July triples ICE's detention budget to $45 billion over four years. Administration officials have said they need 100,000 beds at detention centers to reach their mass-deportation goals. Zoley estimated that private companies currently have capacity for 75,000 or 80,000 beds, leaving a gap that could be met at military bases or by the US states. 'They are communicating with many red states in particular,' said Zoley, who mentioned Florida, Texas and Louisiana among the Republican-controlled states whose public sectors are being enlisted. 'These are unchartered waters for the agency to expand their platform of detention nationally... to literally more than double the size of the previous administration,' he said. 'It can't be done overnight.' Shares of Geo rose 2.6 percent. After the stock market closed, CoreCivic, the other leading private prison company, lifted its financial targets after reporting that second-quarter profits more than doubled to $38.5 million.
Washington Post
01-08-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
The former private prison exec behind ICE's immigrant detention surge
Shortly after the election, newly named 'border czar' Tom Homan approached an old friend and former colleague about helping him lead President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. But there was a problem: The friend, David Venturella, was just finishing a 12-year stint at private prison firm Geo Group, where securities filings show he was paid more than $6 million to run immigrant detention centers for the federal government. A federal ethics rule generally bars government employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employers for one year. Homan and Venturella discussed how the hiring could also invite public criticism of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's close ties to Geo, its largest contractor, according to a person Venturella later briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. So rather than appoint Venturella to a high-profile post at ICE, the Department of Homeland Security hired him as a full-time adviser and granted him a waiver from the ethics rule, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post. The maneuver allowed him to avoid a potentially contentious Senate confirmation hearing and keep his name off public websites. Venturella, 59, is now the No. 2 official overseeing the ICE division that manages contracts for immigrant detention centers, according to an organizational chart and a person briefed on his role, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency matters. In an emailed statement, an ICE spokesperson said Venturella has divested his Geo stocks and holdings and 'has no financial ties to the company.' The spokesperson said he 'has no role in reviewing, approving, or recommending contracts,' but declined to comment on why he was given a waiver that authorizes him to work on Geo matters. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said Homan abides by 'the highest ethical standards and he had no knowledge of any potential conflicts' involving Venturella. She said Homan, who previously consulted for Geo, recuses himself from all discussions of government contracts. Venturella and Geo both did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls seeking comment. Venturella's hiring highlights the revolving-door relationship between ICE and Geo, a Boca Raton, Florida-based conglomerate that has emerged as one of the leading players in Trump's mass deportation agenda. As Geo has grown to become ICE's contractor of choice, the company has cultivated close ties to the ICE officials who write and oversee its contracts and offered some of them jobs after leaving government. Venturella was one of these officials: He was working as an assistant director at ICE when Geo recruited him in 2012 for a role overseeing business development, he said in a court deposition. He worked as a Geo executive until 2023 and as a paid consultant through Jan. 31 of this year, the company said in a filing. The former executive's return to ICE, at a time when Trump is dramatically increasing the nation's reliance on immigrant detention, is a sign of how deeply interwoven the personnel and priorities of the two organizations have become, said Scott Shuchart, a former ICE assistant director who was appointed by Biden and left in January. At least six former ICE officials who left government over the past decade now work in senior leadership roles at Geo Group, according to LinkedIn profiles, government biographies and reporting by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. 'When there's a meeting with Geo, it feels like all the old fraternity brothers coming back and everybody knows the secret handshake,' Shuchart said. 'It feels uncomfortably intimate.' ICE did not respond to questions about its officials going to or coming from jobs at Geo. In response to questions about Venturella, an agency spokesperson said his background in government and the private sector 'provide ICE leadership with invaluable knowledge and expertise.' Critics of the detention industry contend Geo is using its influence over ICE to achieve its own goals of growth and profits. 'The question I think for the American people is, do you want to have people who are in these positions solely to make money for the companies or do you want to actually have somebody that will hold the companies accountable?' Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Washington), the ranking Democrat on the House's subcommittee on immigration, said in an interview. Private contractors including Geo hold 86 percent of ICE's immigrant detainees, according to nonprofit researcher Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The Trump administration is relying on these companies to help achieve its goal of doubling the nation's detention capacity to 100,000 beds. Geo is vying for new and expanded contracts as the government prepares to spend $45 billion over the next four years on immigrant detention — more than the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations spent on detention combined. In a 2020 letter to ICE, congressional Democrats including Jayapal, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris warned of what they called a 'troubling' pattern of close ties between the agency and the detention industry. The flow of contracts and personnel from ICE to these contractors 'raises particular concerns about corruption, conflicts of interest, and your agencies' ethics rules and guidance,' they wrote in the 2020 letter, which was addressed in part to ICE acting director Matthew Albence. Two years later, Albence joined Geo Group as senior vice president of client relations. Albence did not respond to requests for comment. The federal 'impartiality rule' prevents government employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employer for one year. Adopted in the early 1990s, it was intended to prevent businesses from gaining an unfair advantage from personnel moves, said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer for the George W. Bush administration. Exceptions to this rule, known as '502 authorizations,' are granted only under 'exceptional circumstances' — usually, when the government urgently needs the expertise of a businessperson with specialized experience, Painter said. Now in his third government stint, Venturella has deep relationships across the agency and an extensive knowledge of detention contracts which he has displayed in numerous court declarations and depositions. He earns a salary of $164,280, government records show — about one-eighth what he earned during a typical year as a top Geo executive. Meanwhile, his former employer is experiencing one of its most rapid periods of growth. Since January, ICE has awarded Geo new and modified contracts expected to increase the company's annual revenue at least 10 percent, including a deal to expand an existing facility in southeast Georgia into one of the country's largest immigrant detention centers. The agency's recent move to sharply increase the number of immigrants wearing GPS ankle monitors could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in added annual revenue for BI Inc., a Geo subsidiary, The Post reported last week. 'Large amounts of taxpayer money is going to his former employer,' Painter said of Venturella's hiring. 'It's not fair to the taxpayer to have a former executive at that company' involved in these contracts, he added. Last month, the agency awarded BI a one-year extension to its immigrant ankle-monitoring contract. That decision delayed a competitive bidding process that could have dislodged Geo's control of the lucrative business, leaving some to wonder if the company got preferential treatment. Justin Hawkins, CEO of Talitrix, a maker of wrist-worn tracking devices, says his company held dozens of meetings with ICE in preparation for bidding on the contract. 'We believe more competition in this space will lead to better outcomes, greater compliance, stronger public safety, and reduced costs to taxpayers,' he said in an emailed statement. A few days before the ankle monitoring contract was extended, Venturella met with executives from Geo to discuss the immigrant tracking program, according to an internal ICE document reviewed by The Post. The meeting's organizer: Henry Lucero, a former ICE official who is now a vice president at Geo. Lucero did not respond to requests for comment.
