The two main companies with government contracts to operate ICE detention centers are seeing significant revenue growth they expect will last all year. Both CoreCivic and the GEO Group released second quarter earnings reports last week.
“Last year was the most successful period of business wins in our company’s history and we expect 2026 to continue to be very active as well,” said George Zoley, chairman and CEO of the GEO Group, during a call with investors.
The GEO Group reported a 15 percent increase in revenue in the second quarter, largely attributed to contracts with ICE to house immigrants at detention centers across the country.
CoreCivic, which also runs ICE detention centers, saw a 27 percent jump in revenue.
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The companies are notching up their forecasted earnings for the year, attributing the gains to ICE detaining more immigrants and the agency bringing more idle private detention centers online.
The GEO Group is also making money from ICE to track immigrants who are not locked up by offering ankle monitoring bracelets and other tracking technology.
Haitians who recently lost temporary protected status likely will increase demand for ankle monitoring, Zoley said.
“Most of them, we believe, would be placed under the ankle monitoring supervision technique,” Zoley told investors.
Another major source of revenue is the recent sales of detention centers to ICE.
CoreCivic expects to make $1.6 billion dollars after selling four detention centers to ICE, equaling $307,000 dollars in revenue per bed, CoreCivic CEO Patrick Swindle said during an earnings call with investors.
"We believe that demand for additional capacity has increased,” Swindle said. “We believe we are well positioned with already existing turnkey capacity to the extent if there’s more.”
The companies are still able to make money from sold detention centers by continuing to operate them under government contract.
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The growth in these companies’ bottom lines is happening as deaths of detainees reach record levels and amid persistent reports of inadequate medical care. CoreCivic and the GEO Group have repeatedly said all of their facilities meet strict national detention guidelines.
