CoreCivic and GEO Group are reporting billions in revenue as ICE expands detention capacity, reactivates facilities and signs new contracts, raising questions about who profits from the immigration crackdown and whether oversight is keeping pace.
The expanding immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump is creating a rapidly growing business opportunity for the two largest private prison companies that contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
CoreCivic and The GEO Group reported nearly $2.74 billion in combined revenue during the first six months of 2026, as the companies activated previously idle facilities, secured new ICE contracts and expanded their capacity to provide detention, transportation, electronic monitoring and other immigration-related services. CoreCivic reported $1.30 billion in revenue for the first half of the year, up 26.6% from the same period in 2025, while GEO reported $1.44 billion, a 16% increase.
The growth comes as the immigration detention system faces increasing scrutiny over deaths, medical care, sanitation and other conditions inside facilities.
A June report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights found that 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of Trump’s second administration. The organizations said the trend-level mortality rate reached 8.4 deaths per 10,000 detainees by June 2026, nearly twice the trend-level peak during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The findings have intensified questions about whether a detention system increasingly dependent on private contractors is expanding faster than oversight mechanisms designed to protect people in custody.
A business expanding with detention
CoreCivic’s second-quarter results illustrate the speed of the expansion.
The company reported $684.9 million in revenue during the second quarter, a 27.3% increase from the same period last year. Company executives attributed the improvement partly to the activation of previously idle facilities and higher populations at facilities serving federal customers, including ICE.
Several facilities that had been inactive have now been brought back into service.
In August, CoreCivic received a five-year ICE contract to reactivate its 1,600-bed Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, which had been idle since 2010. Once fully operational, the company expects the facility to generate approximately $75 million in annual revenue.
The company is also benefiting from a major transaction involving facilities already used by the federal government.
In July, CoreCivic completed the sale of its 2,560-bed California City Detention Facility and 1,994-bed Otay Mesa Detention Center to the federal government for a combined $1.5 billion. CoreCivic said it expects to continue managing both facilities under existing ICE contracts.
In August, CoreCivic completed the sale of two additional facilities, bringing the total value of four detention-facility sales to $2.2 billion. The company said it expects to continue managing those facilities under existing ICE agreements.
GEO sees another wave of growth
GEO Group is experiencing a similar expansion.
The company reported $732.1 million in revenue during the second quarter, up 15% from a year earlier. For the first six months of 2026, revenue reached $1.44 billion, a 16% increase over the first half of 2025.
GEO’s chairman and CEO, George C. Zoley, said the company’s first-half performance was driven by growth opportunities secured during 2025. He described the previous year as the company’s most successful period for winning new business and said he expected 2026 to remain highly active.
The company has already signed two new ICE agreements worth approximately $165 million in combined annual revenue once the facilities reach normal operations.
One contract covers the 1,188-bed Big Horn facility in Hudson, Colorado, which is expected to generate approximately $85 million annually.
The second covers GEO’s 1,320-bed Rivers facility in Winton, North Carolina, expected to generate approximately $80 million annually. ICE will reimburse GEO for capital expenditures needed to reactivate both facilities and provide funding for startup costs.
GEO has raised its 2026 revenue guidance to between $2.95 billion and $3.05 billion, although the company said its current guidance does not yet include revenue from the new Big Horn and Rivers contracts.
The company has also identified additional potential growth from reactivating other idle facilities, increasing populations at existing facilities and expanding electronic monitoring and transportation services.
California becomes a major piece of the system
California has become an important part of the expanding detention infrastructure.
CoreCivic’s California City facility, in the Mojave Desert, has 2,560 beds, while its Otay Mesa facility near San Diego has 1,994 beds. The federal government purchased both facilities in July for $1.5 billion but retained CoreCivic to manage them under ICE contracts.
The transactions demonstrate a significant shift: the federal government is acquiring detention real estate while private companies can continue providing the day-to-day management.
CoreCivic has described the sales as strengthening its balance sheet and creating flexibility to pursue additional growth opportunities.
The money behind detention
The central tension is straightforward.
As the federal government detains more people, it needs more beds, transportation, security, medical services and electronic monitoring. Private companies that provide those services can therefore see increased demand.
For investors, that demand represents an expanding market.
For immigration advocates and human-rights organizations, it raises a different question: whether a system that pays private companies according to detention needs creates sufficient incentives to prioritize conditions and accountability alongside capacity.
The latest financial results show that the business side of immigration detention is growing rapidly.
CoreCivic and GEO together generated nearly $2.74 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, while both companies are preparing for additional contracts, facility activations and higher detention populations.
At the same time, deaths and complaints about medical care and detention conditions are generating renewed scrutiny of the system.
The result is an increasingly visible contradiction: the more expansive the immigration detention system becomes, the greater the financial opportunity for the companies operating it—and the greater the scrutiny over whether that growth is being matched by adequate oversight and care.
