Trump's ICE raids bring boom time for U.S. private prisons

RICHMOND, Virginia - U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown is upending lives, testing the U.S. court system and providing a lucrative income for the private prison industry.

Major prison companies have talked up the financial opportunities already flowing in from the construction of new or expanded detention facilities to house immigrants detained or awaiting deportation.

More than 60,000 people were being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as of late August, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. That is about a 54% increase from when Trump took office in January.

Here's what you need to know:

Which companies stand to benefit?

The GEO Group, Inc. and CoreCivic are the two largest private prison companies in the United States.

GEO Group has already won contracts that include a 15-year, $1-billion agreement to help establish an immigration processing centre at its Newark, New Jersey location and one for an immigration processing centre at its facility in Baldwin, Michigan.

That is according to a letter last month from congressional Democrats raising conflict-of-interest concerns about Trump "border czar" Tom Homan, who has consulted for the company in the past.

CoreCivic CEO Damon T. Hininger said on the company's second-quarter earnings call that the contracting pace has picked up since the July passage of Trump's budget bill, which allocates some $75 billion in additional funds for ICE.

"This funding is a historic increase in funding provided to ICE for border security and immigration detention, which we know will further drive demand for the solutions we provide," Hininger said.

Trump's agenda thus far has created a "narrative foundation" that allows prisons to flourish, said Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, a non-profit group that advocates for the rights of the incarcerated.

The agenda has then executed on that foundation "with policies that are funnelling thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people through the arrest-detention-and-deportation continuum that feeds the bottom line of the immigration detention and prison industry," Tylek said.

GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.

A CoreCivic spokesperson said the company's longstanding policy was not to lobby for or against legislation that serves as a basis for, or determines the duration of, someone's detention.

"Our responsibility is to care for each person respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process that they are entitled to," said spokesperson Ryan Gustin.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said they look forward to partnering with additional states to open even more detention facilities and that ICE was trying to move "criminal illegal aliens" out of the facilities as soon as possible.

"Under President Trump's leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens," the official said.

Where are new facilities being built or expanded?

In addition to GEO Group's New Jersey and Michigan facilities, the company also won a $47-million contract to expand a detention centre in southeast Georgia.

On CoreCivic's earnings call, Hininger highlighted an agreement with ICE to resume operations at an immigration processing centre in Dilley, Texas and another ICE contract to reactivate an immigration processing centre in California City, California.

The city of Leavenworth, Kansas is suing CoreCivic over plans to build a new ICE detention centre in the community – historically a place where correctional facilities are the lifeblood of the local economy.

Hininger said on the call that the city was alleging a special use permit was required to operate the facility, but that the company did not think that was the case.

Gustin, the company spokesperson, said they were pursuing "all avenues" to bring the ongoing legal matter to a conclusion.

A federal judge ruled last month that so-called "Alligator Alcatraz", a massive detention facility in the Florida Everglades, had to stop taking in new detainees, with the expectation that the facility would eventually be shut down - costing the state an estimated $218 million potentially.

But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Sept. 2 the facility was still operating and continuing with deportations despite the judge's order.

What are lawmakers saying?

Congressional Democrats wrote a letter dated Aug. 25 to Homan raising conflict-of-interest concerns about his past work as a consultant for GEO Group.

The Democrats cited media reports indicating that David Venturella, a former top GEO executive, has a high-ranking role in the ICE division tasked with making decisions about immigration detention centre contracts.

"As border czar, you are responsible for implementing the administration's policy of mass roundups and detention - a policy that depends heavily on the operators of private detention facilities, including GEO Group," the lawmakers wrote.

"However, your past work as a paid consultant for GEO Group and your involvement in the hiring of Mr. Venturella raise serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest in this arrangement."

The White House denied there was an issue with Homan.

"As Border Czar, Tom Homan has had no involvement with any government contracts, as he has continuously made clear, so there is no conflict of interest," said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson.

An ICE spokesperson told the Washington Post that Venturella had no financial ties to the company and has no role in reviewing, approving or recommending contracts.

Republicans, meanwhile, have defended ICE and the agency's immigrant detention facilities, also pointing to a rise in attacks on ICE agents amid Trump's broader crackdown.

"I'm not personally inspecting every facility, but I've been in a hell of a lot of them over the years. The facilities I've been in are pretty friggin' nice," Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told the digital news outlet NOTUS.

(Reporting by David Sherfinski; Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Jon Hemming.)