Private Prisons’ $1.17B Haul Show Business Is Booming During Trump’s Second Term: Report

Private prison and surveillance companies are reporting major revenue gains as the Trump administration accelerates immigration arrests and detentions, with GEO Group, CoreCivic, and tech contractor Palantir collectively taking in more than $1.17 billion in the second quarter of 2025, a new report by The Guardian has revealed.

GEO Group posted $636.2 million in quarterly revenue, exceeding analyst expectations, while CoreCivic reported $538.2 million, up nearly 10% from last year. GEO’s detention centers currently house about 20,000 of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) estimated 57,000 detainees. CoreCivic said it has offered ICE around 30,000 beds nationwide.

Both companies told investors they are preparing for “unprecedented growth” following last month’s passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocates $45 billion to expand ICE’s detention network, as The Guardian reports.

Palantir, which provides data systems for immigration enforcement policies, saw U.S. government revenue climb 53% year-over-year, surpassing $1 billion for the first time in a quarter. ICE recently awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to develop a database aimed at increasing deportation efficiency.

While detention numbers surge, a recent report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) found ICE has been transferring detainees far from their arrest locations, often to private facilities operating over their contractual capacity. On April 13, ICE’s 181 facilities operated at 76% of total capacity, yet 45 facilities were overfilled, including several exceeding limits by more than 100 people. Overcrowded sites were predominantly run by private contractors such as GEO Group and CoreCivic.

The Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, run by Akima Global Services, at one point held nearly triple its contracted population. TRAC questioned whether such transfers are used to move detainees to jurisdictions with fewer procedural requirements, potentially accelerating deportations.

Critics say the detention buildout is coming at a human cost. “Budgets are moral documents, and last month Congress decided to fully fund cruelty aimed at immigrant communities,” said Setareh Ghandehari of the Detention Watch Network to The Guardian.

Conditions inside some facilities have drawn scrutiny including the CoreCivic-operated Cibola Correctional Facility in New Mexico which is under FBI investigation for drug trafficking and has seen at least 15 deaths since 2018.