In Trump's mass deportation plan, the private prison industry sees a lucrative opportunity
As the government and law enforcement brace for the sweeping ramifications of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to deport what could be millions of undocumented immigrants from the United States, another stakeholder appears poised to cash in on the complex logistics that would be required: the powerful private prison industry.
On corporate earnings calls since Election Day, executives at the country's top private prison firms have embraced Trump's immigration agenda as a potential windfall if the federal government requires contractors to construct new detention facilities and provide additional support services for the unprecedented effort.
Geo Group founder George Zoley, whose company is the country's largest private prison operator, told investors last week that Trump's deportation plans represent a "potential sea change" for the industry.
"The Geo Group was built for this unique moment in our history and the opportunities that it will bring," Zoley said.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has for years relied on private companies to house detained migrants, making it a multimillion-dollar business. That industry is expected to grow under Trump and his newly tapped border czar, Tom Homan, who has embraced Trump's promise to undertake mass deportations on "Day 1" of the new administration.
John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE, said he expects the Trump administration to offer "massive contracts" to the major players in the private prison industry.
"[Trump] is going to rely heavily on them," Sandweg told ABC News. "Those private contractors are going to make billions, legitimate billions off this."
The two largest private prison companies -- Geo Group and CoreCivic -- saw their stocks surge after the election last week.
Under the first Trump administration, the number of immigrants detained in private detention facilities grew to a record high, according to a 2019 report from the Sentencing Project, a group that advocates for humane treatment of prisoners.
"The Trump administration's immigration policies, as well as existing immigration legislation, create structural incentives to increase detention, which has largely been achieved through the use of private prisons," the report said.
For years, many Democratic lawmakers have called for an end to the federal government's use of private prisons due to what they say is inadequate oversight in private facilities that results in underreported health and safety violations. In a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in May, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats urged Mayorkas to phase out ICE's use of private detention after President Joe Biden sought to phase out the use of private prisons at the federal level.
"Upon termination of contracts, ICE should pursue community-based alternatives to detention, which provide immigrants with resources that help them integrate into their communities and stay with their families," the letter said.
Eunice Cho, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project told ABC News in a statement that ICE opened up 40 new detention facilities during the Trump administration, with the majority of beds -- over 90% -- going to private prison companies.
"There is little doubt that private prison companies will profit handsomely under the Trump administration and its attacks against immigrant communities," Cho said. "The true cost, however, will be borne by people who will be locked up in dangerous, deadly, and inhumane immigrant detention centers, where private prison companies are accountable to one thing: the bottom line."
Homan, himself a former ICE director, has fiercely defended the use of private facilities to house ICE detainees, arguing they allow "higher quality and lower cost than the government can provide."
"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."
Homan has framed the use of private facilities as a legal necessity because ICE is legally required to detain most of the undocumented immigrants they arrest -- and most states lack enough government-run facilities to house them. Even if states pass laws prohibiting the use of private prisons, Homan said ICE would continue the use of the private facilities.
On Geo Group's earnings call last week, Zoley and other executives said they have the "necessary technology and staffing resources to significantly scale up the delivery" of services if needed. The company already has thousands of unused beds available, including 10,000 beds at six company facilities and 8,000 beds at existing ICE and U.S. Marshals facilities that are already under contract.
Executives from CoreCivic said during a recent earnings call that they were already taking steps to make additional beds available in anticipation of the need once Trump is sworn into office.
"It feels like with the election this year, we're heading into an era that we really haven't seen," said one CoreCivic executive.
