For every $1 that the three largest immigration deportation and prison companies donated to GOP campaigns in 2024, these private contractors stand to reap more than $11,000 in increased annual revenue in 2026, according to damning new research.
This epic payout, thanks to GOP leaders’ accelerated taxpayer spending on border enforcement and imprisonment, comes as a sweeping new congressional research report finds that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has for years failed to ensure that such contractors provide standard medical care for detainees.
From August 2023 to August 2024, the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s independent, nonpartisan research arm, found that “57 percent of adults with a potential illness or injury and 20 percent of pregnant individuals did not receive medical assessments” during their detentions at Border Patrol–contracted facilities — a violation of the agency’s policies. Additionally, the research office found that CBP “had not provided agents and officers training on recognizing medical distress in children.”
The Trump administration, as of October, has reportedly paused paying providers for migrant health care costs altogether, even as the number of individuals held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increased more than 75 percent in the last year — a move that could exacerbate what health advocates say are already unsafe circumstances.
Only 40 percent of medical services for detainees are administered directly by the federal government, leaving the majority of care in the hands of local officials and private contractors.
Sometimes these include ancillary medical providers contracted by the Department of Homeland Security, but other times, detention center operators are responsible for administering health care. That’s the case for most GEO Group centers: the $2.2 billion company boasts that it provides “around-the-clock access to medical care” as part of its typical…
Auteur: Veronica Riccobene
