Private prison firms contributed more than $1M to Trump's reelection. Now they expect a business boom

In the months leading up to Election Day, the nation's largest private prison company poured a million dollars into a super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump.

The donations from Geo Group were far from the largest corporate contribution to Trump's war chest -- but few industries are set to benefit from the incoming Trump administration as significantly as private prisons, which are expecting a surge in business driven by Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

During a recent corporate earnings call, Geo Group CEO Brian Evans estimated that his company could make as much as $400 million annually by filling empty or underutilized beds at existing detention facilities to support what he called the "future needs for ICE and the federal government," referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"What is new is a potential sea change by the incoming Trump administration that is expected to implement a much more aggressive policy towards interior and border immigration enforcement," Geo Group founder George Zoley said on the call. "We believe that the private sector will play a critical role in assisting the government in carrying out its objectives."

Geo Group could expand the numbers of beds in its detention facilities, offer GPS monitoring for potentially millions of migrants, and ramp up its secure transportation of migrants, according to executives on the Nov. 7 earnings call.

"We have assured ICE of our capability to rapidly scale up our capabilities to monitor and oversee several hundreds of thousands, or even several millions of individuals in order to achieve the federal government's immigration law compliance objectives," Geo Group President Wayne Calabrese said on the call.

Investors appear to have noticed, with the company's stock price jumping more than 80% since the beginning of the month.

'A free-for-all' for companies

Both Zoley and Evans both made contributions directly to Trump's Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, though their $11,600 contributions are a fraction of the million dollars that Geo Acquisition II Inc. -- a subsidiary of the private prison company -- contributed to the Make America Great Again Inc. over the last year.

Geo Acquisition II contributed $500,000 in February before contributing $250,000 in August and again in September, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Saurav Ghosh, a director at the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, said the contributions were likely made through a subsidiary in order to comply with laws prohibiting federal contractors from making political contributions.

When Geo Group used a separate subsidiary -- GEO Corrections Holdings, Inc -- to contribute money to a pro-Trump super PAC in 2016, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, arguing the contribution violated the prohibition on federal contractor contributions. The FEC ultimately dismissed the case after commissioners were deadlocked along partisan lines, clearing the way for future contributions through sister companies that don't directly have contracts with the government.

"It's still concerning from the perspective of corporations that are looking to drive policy in ways that favor their interests over everyday Americans," said Ghosh.

Executives from CoreCivic -- the country's second largest private prison company -- said on a recent earnings call that they are preparing to meet the demand for detention beds that they anticipate from the incoming Trump administration. CoreCivic president Damon Hininger contributed $300,000 to a joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee over the last year.

"Trump's first time in office was a free-for-all for companies giving money to his campaign and his companies," said Robert Maguire, Vice President for Research and Data at the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "We're going to see that on overdrive during his second term, with private prison companies putting themselves in a position to benefit from this administration."

Aiming to 'educate' officials

Both CoreCivic and Geo Group also run separate PACs they say aim to "educate" officials from both parties about their services -- though a review of the PACs' contributions suggest that Republican candidates and political action committees receive the overwhelming majority of their donations.

The Geo Group Inc. Political Action Committee -- which the company describes as a nonpartisan PAC funded by employee contributions -- contributed more than $670,000 to Republican candidates and aligned PACs over the last two years. The PAC contributed approximately $17,500 to Democratic candidates and causes.

Of the $300,000 in contributions made by CoreCivic's PAC, more than $277,000 have gone toward Republican candidates and political action committees.

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for CoreCivic said the company supports candidates and elected officials who "understand important solutions" that the company can provide, like "reducing recidivism, alleviating prison overcrowding, and providing safe, humane immigration capacity."

The spokesperson for the company added that CoreCivic did not make any contributions to any presidential candidate or campaign during the 2024 U.S. presidential cycle.

Representatives for Geo Group did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

'We need detention assets'

Despite their contributions favoring Republicans, executives from both companies say their services are provided without regard to party.

"We have provided these essential services under both Democratic and Republican administrations and during times when either party has been in control of the U.S. Congress," Evans, GEO Group CEO, said on the recent earnings call.

Under the Trump administration -- when ICE opened 40 new detention facilities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union -- Geo Group's revenue grew from $2.17 billion in 2016 to $2.35 billion in 2020. When President Joe Biden took office and immediately signed an executive order to eliminate the Department of Justice's use of private prisons, he did not include ICE's use of private detention -- and Geo Group's revenue continued to increase to $2.41 billion in 2023, with ICE accounting for 43% of its customer revenue.

According to Maguire, the private prison industry is now poised to profit from Trump's new policies.

Trump has vowed to carry out the "largest deportation program in American history" and has put it in the hands of former acting ICE director Tom Homan, who is now the president-elect's "border czar." According to Homan, the federal government will require "a massive amount of detention beds" to house migrants before deporting them.

"What people don't understand is we can't just put [them on] a plane," he said. "There's a process we have to go through. You have to contact the country, they have to agree to accept them, then they got to send you travel documents. And that takes several days to several weeks. So we need detention assets."

As ICE already relies on private-run detention facilities, Homan has suggested that private prison companies would be the cheapest and most effective way to increase the country's capacity to house migrants.

"Using outside contractors that run facilities like this as their core business function saves millions of dollars in taxpayer funds and increases the quality of care those being detained receive," Homan wrote in his 2020 book, "Defend the Border and Save Lives."