Criminalization as a Business Model
As Trump and other politicians use immigration as a political weapon, the real crisis goes unexamined: the economic system that displaces people through trade and investment policies, exploits their labor upon arrival, and criminalizes their existence.
By Iza Camarillo
This piece includes excerpts from Iza Camarillo, “Exporting Instability, Importing Exploitation: The Impacts of U.S. Trade Policy on Migration in Latin America,” Public Citizen, June 2025. For more detail related to this introduction, see the full report: https://gtwaction.org/exporting-instability-importing-exploitation/. Photo credit: El Salvador’s presidential press office/Associated Press.
In campaign speeches, press conferences, and executive orders, President Donald Trump has relentlessly vilified Latin American immigrants as criminals, invaders, and burdens on the U.S. economy.[i] He has declared a “national emergency” at the southern border to justify authoritarian power grabs, deployed troops and razor wire against asylum-seekers, and fast-tracked deportations to countries like El Salvador — stripping people of due process and ignoring well-documented risks to their lives and safety.[ii] These tactics are not about border security; they are about scapegoating vulnerable people to obscure deeper systemic failure as corporations cash in.
As Trump and other politicians use immigration as a political weapon, the real crisis goes unexamined: the economic system that displaces people through trade and investment policies, exploits their labor upon arrival, and criminalizes their existence.
“This fight is ours, it’s our community’s, but it belongs to everyone. We all have to fight for them.” -David Huerta, President of the Service Employees International Union California. Original photo: David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG.
The consequences are felt beyond the border. Within communities, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is detaining Spanish-speaking American citizens, sweeping up Native Americans in immigration raids, and even deporting U.S. citizens.[iii] This targeting stems from hate-fueled bias, and a recent Supreme Court ruling has effectively sanctioned racial profiling and the unjust treatment of individuals whose only “crime” is their heritage.[iv]
Trump’s criminalization of migrants does nothing to address the U.S. economic policies that displace people across Latin America and extract profit at every step of their journey. Instead, it lines the pockets of a powerful corporate lobby: the private prison industry.
In his second term, President Trump has directed his administration to intensify its efforts to crack down on immigration. In the early days of the administration, ICE arrests averaged around 660 daily, but just four months later, the agency arrested a record 2,300 individuals in a single day.[v] White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller made clear the administration’s goal is to increase arrests to 3,000 per day.[vi]
Detainment operations, conducted with militarized tactics and unmarked vehicles, have sparked widespread peaceful protests. In Los Angeles, community resistance was met with an unprecedented deployment of federal troops. The raids have affected diverse communities such as garment workers, day laborers, and local businesses, leading to mass arrests and heightened community unrest.[vii]
Private Prisons: Cashing In on Detained Migrants
The Trump administration’s xenophobic campaign rhetoric and ensuing ICE raids have proven highly profitable for private prison companies, especially GEO Group and CoreCivic. Since Trump took office, their stock value soared — GEO Group’s by 35% and CoreCivic’s by 57%.[viii] Their financial success is intricately linked to Trump’s policies, particularly his rescission of a Biden-era order aimed at reducing the use of private prisons.[ix] These companies run detention centers and create surveillance technology to monitor immigrants, capitalizing on the mass deportation strategy.
Lobbying
GEO Group and CivicCore have aggressively lobbied to expand immigration enforcement and detention to boost their revenue. Between 2008 and 2014, they collectively spent over $16 million on federal lobbying, targeting the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees immigration detention funding and policies.[x]
In 2017, during Trump’s first administration, GEO Group significantly increased its lobbying expenditures, spending $1.7 million — a more than 70% increase from the previous year — to influence policies related to immigration enforcement and detention. This marked the highest amount on record for a private prison contractor at the time.[xi]
In 2024, GEO Group reportedly spent $1.38 million, and CoreCivic allocated $1.77 million to federal lobbying, continuing their efforts to influence immigration and detention policies.[xii] In the first quarter of 2025 alone, GEO Group invested $350,000, while CoreCivic spent $490,000 on lobbying efforts.[xiii] These expenditures help secure favorable government policies that align with their business interests.
Government Contracts
That lobbying has paid off. Following its surge in lobbying in 2017, GEO Group announced it had won the Trump administration’s first federal contract for a new immigration detention center: a $110 million, 1,000-bed facility in Conroe, Texas.[xiv] GEO Group and CoreCivic have continued to benefit directly from mass deportation efforts, securing lucrative ICE contracts to run detention centers and provide detention beds. GEO Groups secured $747 million in contracts in 2023 alone, and CoreCivic received an ICE contract worth $2.2 billion, representing 30% of its total revenue.[xv]
The companies’ profit model thrives on the detention of immigrants, with “bed quotas” mandating a minimum number of immigration detention beds, thus ensuring a steady demand for facilities.[xvi] This “bed quota” policy, which guarantees payment of $150 per detainee per day, is funded by taxpayer dollars.[xvii] This financial incentive to maintain high incarceration rates further fuels the cycle of mass detention, as private interests profit from the very policies that fuel the raids targeting the displaced.
Revolving Door
The revolving door between government officials and high-ranking roles within companies raises serious ethical concerns. For example, Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney General, previously lobbied for GEO Group.[xviii] Most recently, David Bible, a top ICE official, left his position to become Executive Vice President at GEO Group, shortly after advocating for more funding to expand detention capacity and technology to monitor migrants — efforts that directly benefited his future employer.[xix]
Forced Labor and Inhumane Conditions
A key element of the profit-driven model is the exploitation of detainees as cheap labor. GEO Group, which operates 16 ICE detention facilities, has faced multiple lawsuits over inhumane labor practices, including forcing detainees to prepare meals, wash laundry, and scrub toilets for just $1 per day.[xx]
Forcing detainees to do this work for so little avoids the costs associated with hiring paid employees. A federal court ruled that GEO must pay $17 million in back wages, plus $6 million for “unjust enrichment” — still accounting for less than 1% of GEO’s total revenues in 2024.[xxi] Nevertheless, GEO Group is refusing to pay and vowing to “vigorously pursue all available appeals.”[xxii]
Detainees spell “SOS” during a protest against inhumane conditions in the courtyard of ICE’s Krome Detention Center in Florida, 2025. Original photo: Paul Ratje/Reuters.
The company has also faced numerous lawsuits for mistreating detainees, including children.[xxiii] These conditions include moldy food, solitary confinement, and severe medical neglect, resulting in preventable deaths.[xxiv]
In 2023, GEO Group was sued for using toxic chemicals to clean its facilities, causing detainees to fall ill and suffer long-term health consequences.[xxv] Such inhumane conditions are unacceptable under any circumstances. Importantly, migrants detained in ICE centers are not criminals. They are held in legal limbo while an immigration judge determines whether they should be deported.
Booming Business
As the mass detainment of migrants following ICE raids intensifies, the financial incentives of this punitive system become increasingly apparent as corporations that house detained migrants profit from human suffering, funded by taxpayer dollars.[xxvi]
In 2022, the GEO Group reported $4 billion, accounting for approximately 43% of its revenue, from ICE contracts.[xxvii] This revenue stream has only grown as demand for detention space surges under the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. In 2025, CoreCivic signed a new contract with ICE to expand its detention capacity, accommodating up to 784 additional detainees at correctional facilities that the company runs in Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, and Oklahoma, including a maximum-security prison.[xxviii]
Criminalizing migrants does not protect national security — it protects corporate profits. It sustains a system in which workers displaced by trade are penalized for surviving, and where their legal precarity is exploited as a tool of wage suppression.
[i] Andrés Bautista, “100 Days In: NPNA, A Network of 86+ Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Organizations Stand in Defense of Democracy and our Communities,” National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), April 24, 2025. https://partnershipfornewamericans.org/100-days-in-npna-a-network-of-86-immigrant-and-refugee-advocacy-organizations-stand-in-defense-of-democracy-and-our-communities/ and “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” The White House, January 20, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-american-people-against-invasionwhitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-american-people-against-invasion
[ii] Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares a National Emergency at the Southern Border,” The White House, January 22, 2025 https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-declares-a-national-emergency-at-the-southern-border/ and “Trump shuts off access to asylum, plans to send 10,000 troops to border,” The Washington Post, January 22, 2025 https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/01/22/trump-asylum-border-troops-immigration/ and Gabe Gutierrez and Suzanne Gamboa, “Trump’s deportation campaign is capitalizing on a key hallmark: Speed,” NBC News, May 1, 2025 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trumps-deportation-campaign-capitalizing-key-hallmark-speed-rcna203969
[iii] “Suzanne Gamboa and Nicole Acevedo, “Trump immigration raids snag U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, raising racial profiling fears,” NBC News, January 28, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-immigration-raids-citizens-profiling-accusations-native-american-rcna189203 and José Olivares, “US citizen detained by immigration officials who dismissed his Real ID as fake,” The Guardian, May 24, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/24/us-citizen-detained-ice-real-id and Miranda Jeyaretnam, “These Are the Students Targeted by Trump’s Immigration Enforcement Over Campus Activism,” TIME, April 1, 2025. https://time.com/7272060/international-students-targeted-trump-icedetention-deport-campus-palestinian-activism/
[iv] Andrew Chung, “US Supreme Court backs Trump on aggressive immigration raids,” Reuters, September 8, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-backs-trump-aggressive-immigration-raids-2025-09-08/
[v] “From students to tech: How US-China ties are sliding despite tariff truce,” Al Jazeera, 30 May 2025. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/30/from-students-to-tech-how-us-china-ties-are-sliding- despite-tariff-truce
[vi] José Olivares, “Trump administration sets quota to arrest 3,000 people a day in anti-immigration agenda,” The Guardian, May 30, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/29/trump-icearrest-quota
[vii] Ted Hesson, Tim Reid and Mike Scarcella, “Los Angeles ICE raids fuel controversy over masked agents,” Reuters, June 10, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/los-angeles-ice-raids-fuel-controversy-overmasked-agents-2025-06-09/
[viii] Lauren-Brooke Eisen, “What Trump’s Victory Means for the Private Prison Industry,” Brennan Center for Justice, November 2024. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/what-trumps-victorymeans-private-prison-industry and Robert Ferris, “Trump, Republican sweep is a ‘game changer’ for private prison industry,” CNBC, November 23, 2016. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/23/trump-republican-sweepis-a-game-changer-for-private-prison-industry.html
[ix] Bob Ortega and Daniel Medina, “Biden promised but failed to end federal use of private prisons. That’s left the industry ready to cash in big under Trump,” CNN, February 11, 2025. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/politics/private-prisons-poised-to-expand-under-trump-invs
[x] Livia Luan, “Profiting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention,” Migration Policy Institute, May 2018. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/profiting-enforcement-roleprivate-prisons-us-immigration-detention
[xi] Senate Office of Public Records, “Client Profile: GEO Group,” Open Secrets, April 2024. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2017andid=D000022003
[xii] Indy Scholtens, “Private Prison Companies Are Raking in Profits From Increased Deportations,” truthout, April 26, 2025. https://truthout.org/articles/private-prison-companies-are-raking-in-profits-fromincreased-deportations/
[xiii] Quiver LobbyingRadar, “Lobbying Update: $350,000 of THE GEO GROUP INC. lobbying was just disclosed,” NASDAQ, April 2025. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/lobbying-update-350000-geo-group-inc-lobbyingwas-just-disclosed and Clerk of the House of Representatives and Secretary of the Senate, “Lobbying Report: CoreCivic, Inc.” United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, 2025. https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/bc423ab2-f346-47ff-8768-68961e25d005/print/
[xiv] Maya Gold, “Following super PAC support, private prison company wins Trump admin contract,” CREW, April 2017. https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/following-superpac-support-private-prison-company-wins-trump-admin-contract
[xv] Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, “Private Prison Exec Calls Mass Deportation Plans ‘Unprecedented Opportunity’,” The Appeal, February 27, 2025. https://theappeal.org/geo-group-earnings-massdeportations/
[xvi] Grassroots Leadership, “Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota,” In the Public Interest, April 2015. https://inthepublicinterest.org/payoff-how-congressensures-private-prison-profit-with-an-immigrant-detention-quota/ and Livia Luan, “Profiting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention,” Migration Policy Institute, May 2018 https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/profiting-enforcement-role-private-prisons-us-immigrationdetention
[xvii] Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon, “How Expanded Migrant Detention Drives Profiteering and Leads to Tougher Immigration Policies,” Scholars Strategy Network, February 11, 2025. https://scholars.org/contribution/how-expanded-migrant-detention-drives
[xviii] “Pam Bondi’s Extensive Lobbying For Wealthy Special Interests And Foreign Government Poses Serious Conflict Of Interest,” U.S. Committee on the Judiciary, January 15, 2025. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/pam-bondis-extensive-lobbying-for-wealthy-special-interests-and-foreigngovernment-poses-serious-conflict-of-interest and “Lisa Gilbert Testifies Pam Bondi Is Unfit, Unqualified, and Inappropriate,” Public Citizen, January 16, 2025. https://www.citizen.org/news/pam-bondis-corporatelobbying-history-makes-her-unsuitable-to-be-u-s-attorney-general/ and “Pam Bondi’s Corporate Lobbying History Makes Her Unsuitable to be U.S. Attorney General,” Public Citizen, January 15, 2025. https://www.citizen.org/news/lisa-gilbert-testifies-pam-bondi-is-unfit-unqualified-and-inappropriate/
[xix] Nick Schwellenbach and René Kladzyk, “Private Prison Giant Hired ICE Detention Chief,” Project on Government Oversight, January 17, 2025. https://www.pogo.org/investigations/private-prison-giant-hiredice-detention-chief
[xx] McKenzie Funk, “An ICE Contractor Is Worth Billions. It’s Still Fighting to Pay Detainees as Little as $1 a Day to Work,” ProPublica, March 19, 2025. https://www.propublica.org/article/geo-group-ice-detaineeswage
[xxi] “Preemption, Labor, and Movement Strategy: Lessons from Nwauzor on Detention Capitalism,” Harvard Law Review, May 13, 2025. https://harvardlawreview.org/blog/2025/05/preemption-labor-and-movementstrategy-lessons-from-nwauzor-on-detention-capitalism/#:~:text=A%20jury%20ultimately%20awarded%20over%20$17%20million,the%20minimum%20wage%20required%20by%20the%20MWA
[xxii] “The GEO Group Comments on Unfavorable Jury Verdict and Judgments in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington,” The GEO Group, November 4, 2021. https://investors.geogroup.com/newsreleases/news-release-details/geo-group-comments-unfavorable-jury-verdict-and-judgments-us
[xxiii] Eunice Hyunhye Cho, “Unchecked Growth: Private Prison Corporations and Immigration Detention, Three Years Into the Biden Administration,” ACLU, August 7, 2023. https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/unchecked-growth-private-prison-corporations-and-immigration-detention-three-years-into-the-bidenadministration
[xxiv] Madeline Buiano, “Another critical watchdog report: Rotten food, decaying mattresses at New Jersey ICE contract lockup,” The Center for Public Integrity, February 15, 2019. https://publicintegrity.org/inequalitypoverty-opportunity/immigration/immigration-decoded/another-critical-watchdog-report-rotten-fooddecaying-mattresses-at-new-jersey-ice-contract-lockup/ and “The Trump Administration’s Mistreatment of Detained Immigrants: Deaths and Deficient Medical Care by For-Profit Detention Contractors,” Prepared for Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney and Chairman Jamie RaskinSeptember 2020. https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/2020-09-24.%20Staff%20Report%20on%20ICE%20Contractors.pdf and “Family of immigrant who died at Aurora Contract Detention files wrongful death suit against GEO Group,” Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, visited on June 11, 2025. https://www.rmian.org/happenings-news/family-of-immigrant-who-died-ataurora-contract-detention-files-wrongful-death-suit-against-geo-group
[xxv] Jaclyn Diaz, “GEO Group sickened ICE detainees with hazardous chemicals for months, a lawsuit says, NPR, March 25, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/25/1165890634/geo-group-lawsuit-adelanto-icedetainees-chemical-exposure
[xxvi] Amy Grenier, “Private Prison Industry Lobbies for Detention of Immigrants,” Immigration Impact, April 2015. https://immigrationimpact.com/2015/04/22/private-prison-industry-lobbies-for-detention-of-immigrants/#:~:text=Since%202009%2C%20Congress%20has%20instructed,source%20for%20private%20prison%20companies
[xxvii] Indy Scholtens,”Private Prison Companies Are Raking in Profits From Increased Deportations,” Truthout, April 2025. https://truthout.org/articles/private-prison-companies-are-raking-in-profits-from-increased-deportations/
[xxviii] Russell Contreras, “CoreCivic signs deal with ICE to expand immigrant detention capacity,” Axios, February 27, 2025. https://www.axios.com/2025/02/27/private-prison-corecivic-ice-detention-immigrants