Immigration enforcement is not just a matter of policy—it’s a billion-dollar business. And behind the Trump Administration's rhetoric of “law and order” lies a disturbing truth: deportation-industrial complexes are not only profiting from human suffering, they’re bankrolling political campaigns that promise more of it.

At the center of this nexus is the GEO Group, one of the largest private prison and detention facility operators in the United States. The GEO Group has contributed over $1 million to pro-Trump political action committees, including $500,000 in February 2024 and an additional $500,000 split between August and September of that same year, through its subsidiary, Geo Acquisition II Inc.

Private detention giants, such as GEO Group and CoreCivic, have positioned themselves as indispensable partners in the federal government’s immigration crackdown. Their reward? Lucrative contracts, ballooning revenue, and direct access to the political machinery shaping our borders. Executives openly tout mass deportation as a growth opportunity.

“We believe that the private sector will play a critical role in assisting the government in carrying out its objectives,” said George Zoley, GEO Group’s executive chairman, during a November 2024 earnings call. “The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our country’s history and the opportunities that it will bring.”

This is not a partisan critique. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, these companies have thrived. During the Obama era, deportations hit record highs, and private detention firms quietly expanded their influence. Today, under Trump’s second term, they’re cashing in on a $170 billion enforcement bill that reopens shuttered facilities and doubles detention capacity. Eighty-five percent of detainees are now held in privately run centers.

CoreCivic has focused its influence at the state level, funding campaigns in Arizona and Texas, where immigration enforcement is aggressive and detention centers are concentrated. The revolving door between government and industry further entrenches this system, with former officials from ICE and DHS taking roles in private detention firms and shaping policy from both sides.

Yet behind the profit margins lie troubling allegations of abuse, negligence, and corruption.

Video shows violent confrontation at NYC immigration court

Video shows violent confrontation at NYC immigration court www.cbsnews.com

There was a violent confrontation at a Manhattan immigration court Thursday. City Comptroller Brad Lander says an ICE agent was caught on video pushing a woman to the ground moments after her husband was detained, but as CBS News New York's Ali Bauman reports, the Department of Homeland Security has remained silent about what exactly happened.

ICE enforcement has escalated sharply. According to the Deportation Data Project, daily detentions surged from 300 to over 1,000, disproportionately targeting Hispanics, Latinos in broad, indiscriminate sweeps. These aggressive tactics often bypass due process and sow fear across all immigrant communities.

The public response has been swift and emotional. Videos circulate showing children sobbing and parents being taken into custody, prompting widespread protests and tense confrontations between federal agents and local residents. Immigration lawyers warned that such tactics discouraged migrants from attending court hearings, undermining the integrity of the legal system.

CoreCivic’s South Texas Family Residential Center—once closed due to cost concerns and the death of a toddler—is being reopened. No accountability. No reform. Just recycled trauma under a new contract.

Tom Homan—former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and now President Trump’s Border Czar—was the subject of a federal bribery investigation. The probe stemmed from a 2024 FBI sting operation in which undercover agents, posing as business executives, allegedly recorded Homan accepting $50,000 in cash inside a restaurant takeout bag. In exchange, Homan reportedly suggested he could help secure immigration-related government contracts for their companies if appointed to a senior role in a second Trump administration.

We cannot accept a system where masked ICE agents detain undocumented immigrants who are overwhelmingly law-abiding members of our communities. These are not the “most dangerous” individuals the Trump administration claims to pursue—they are our neighbors, our coworkers, our loved ones. Parents. Caregivers. People with deep roots and no criminal records. Yet they are treated as fugitives, their lives upended for the sake of political theater.

But there is a way forward—if we’re willing to confront the architecture of exploitation and build something better.

We must:

• End private detention contracts. Public facilities, while imperfect, are subject to greater oversight and democratic control. Legislation like the “Justice Is Not for Sale Act” offers a path. Cities and counties can also refuse to issue permits and cooperate with ICE.
• Invest in community-based alternatives, such as case management programs, legal aid, and housing support. These models are more humane, more effective, and far less expensive.
• Enforce transparency. Subpoena power, independent monitors, and whistleblower protections are essential to exposing abuse and preventing cover-ups.
• Decouple campaign finance from enforcement contracts. No company profiting from detention should be allowed to fund the politicians who expand it.

When immigration policy is driven by profit, migrants become revenue streams, abuse becomes a line item, and democracy becomes a pay-to-play system where campaign donations shape who gets detained, deported, or discarded.

This is not enforcement—it is erasure. The political spectacle is prioritized over substance, and the human cost is buried beneath campaign slogans and billion-dollar contracts.

We must choose differently. Because when democracy is sold to the highest bidder, we all pay the price. And when we allow cruelty to become currency, we lose more than policy debates—we lose our moral compass.

Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and the publisher of the Latino News Network. Balta is the only person to serve twice as president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).