Private Prison Company GEO Group “Excited” About Mass Deportation

On today’s quarterly earnings call, for-profit prison operator GEO Group’s CEO J. David Donahue told investors the company is “very excited to support the mission at hand.”

“I couldn’t be more impressed than watching the agency shift, if you will, or pivot into this new mission,” Donahue said, referring to Homeland Security and ICE leadership. “It has become laser-focused, and we are obviously very excited to support the mission that’s at hand.”

Trump’s white supremacist agenda to detain and deport millions of immigrants has been a boon to the private prison industry. Pam Bondi, the U.S. Attorney General, is a former GEO Group lobbyist. 

The company is under contract with ICE for 16,000 beds, which Donahue said is “the highest level of utilization in over five years.”

“As we have expressed to you previously, we believe we have an unprecedented opportunity to assist the federal government in meeting its expanded immigration enforcement priorities, and we’ve taken several important steps in anticipation of what we expect to be significant future growth opportunities and related operational activity during 2025,” Donahue said.

ICE has just under 48,000 beds nationwide, and the agency estimates that the Laken Riley Act could require as many as 110,000 additional beds. The legislation requires mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants who are charged with low-level offenses, including shoplifting, as well as more serious crimes.

GEO Group has approximately 3,000 beds available to facilities currently under contract with the U.S. Marshals Service and is in “active discussions” with ICE and the Marshals Service about another 6,500 beds.

“We’re excited about the task at hand and very optimistic with the leadership and the focus that’s provided currently out of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the CEO told investors. 

(For those counting, he said “excited” three times on the call.)

So far this year, GEO Group has entered into a contract with ICE for a 1,800-bed North Lake Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, which is estimated to bring in more than $70 million in the first full year it’s open. On today’s call, the company said it ended the first quarter of 2025 with approximately $1.68 billion in debt, $65 million in cash on hand, and approximately $235 million in total available liquidity.

ICE also awarded the company a 15-year contract worth an estimated $1 billion to reopen Delaney Hall, an immigrant lock-up in Newark, New Jersey. On today’s call, GEO Group said the intake process had begun at the facility on May 1. GEO Group CEO said the Delaney Hall and North Lake contract announcements represent in excess of $130 million of potential annual revenue. 

The New Jersey jail can hold 1,000 people, quadrupling detention beds in the state, according to the ACLU of New Jersey. Civil rights groups and elected officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, have protested the facility’s reopening. Yesterday, protesters and Baraka rallied outside the jail. Baraka said the City of Newark would issue several citations against GEO Group after city inspectors were denied entry to the facility. 

Last year, GEO Group’s subsidiary, GEO Transport, Inc., was awarded a five-year contract to run deportation flights. On today’s call, the CEO said they “expect an increase in the number of removal flights to generate an incremental 40 million to $50 million in annualized revenues.” The Appeal hoped to ask if the company plans to fly immigrants living in the United States to prisons in El Salvador, Rwanda, or Libya, but their reporter was not called on. 

“We’re very impressed with ICE’s focus, with their due diligence associated with how they’re going to handle this mission,” CEO Donahue said on today’s call. “We do believe that as the funding streams become defined, we are very well positioned to help them meet their mission, and we’re excited about the second half of the year because of that.”