An in-depth look at immigration detention centers, private prison investors, and ICE enforcement—and the growing impact on Latino communities in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is a city built by immigrants. Its economy, culture, and global influence are inseparable from Latino families who have lived, worked, and raised children here for generations. That reality makes today’s silence—and complicity—by powerful investors in the immigration detention industry not just troubling, but morally indefensible.
Across the United States, immigration enforcement has increasingly become a for-profit enterprise. Detention centers are no longer just government facilities; they are revenue streams. Surveillance is no longer limited to federal agents; it is outsourced to private firms paid bonuses to locate human beings at their homes and workplaces. The result is a system where fear is monetized and human suffering is scalable.
At the center of this system stands GEO Group, one of the largest private prison corporations in the country. And tied to GEO Group—financially, even if indirectly—are investors whose public reputations rest on images of inclusion, civic pride, and community leadership.
The Business of Detention and the Rise of Bounty-Style Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has contracted BI Incorporated, a surveillance firm acquired by GEO Group in 2011, to provide so-called “skip tracing” services. In practice, this means corporate investigators track immigrants across the country so federal agents can arrest them more efficiently.
This is not hypothetical. ICE has already paid BI more than $1.6 million, with the contract potentially reaching $121 million by 2027. GEO Group executives have openly framed this expansion as a historic business opportunity, especially as tens of billions of federal dollars are earmarked for immigration detention.
In this vertically integrated model, GEO Group can profit twice: first by helping locate immigrants, and then by detaining them in facilities the company operates.
Civil rights advocates and lawmakers have warned that this privatized approach invites abuse, secrecy, and a complete erosion of accountability. GEO Group itself has faced years of criticism over alleged medical neglect, inhumane conditions, and deaths in custody at its facilities.
This is the ecosystem some investors continue to support.
Mark Walter, Los Angeles, and a Painful Contradiction
Mark Walter is one of the most powerful figures in Los Angeles sports. As owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers, he presides over two franchises deeply woven into Latino identity, history, and loyalty.
Walter is also the CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a global financial firm that holds a stake—however small—in GEO Group.
To many Latino fans, this connection represents a profound contradiction.
The Dodgers celebrate Latino heritage nights. The Lakers market unity and social justice. Yet their ownership is financially linked to a corporation that profits from immigration raids, detention centers, and now private surveillance operations that function like bounty hunting.
For families who have experienced raids, detentions, or the constant anxiety of being tracked, this is not an abstract investment issue. It is personal. And the continued silence from team ownership has only deepened the sense of betrayal.
A Different Path: The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Contrast this with the decision made by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
Earlier this year, the tribe announced it had withdrawn from a nearly $30 million federal contract to design immigrant detention centers and fully divested from any ICE-related projects. Tribal Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick publicly acknowledged the conflict between profit and values, stating that the Nation chose to exit despite warnings that doing so could reduce future business opportunities.
In his message to the community, Rupnick made something rare in modern finance explicit: economic development must not come at the cost of moral integrity.
The Nation didn’t deny the financial trade-offs. It accepted them. And in doing so, it demonstrated a form of leadership that many billion-dollar institutions refuse to show.
What Accountability Could Look Like
No one is suggesting that Mark Walter personally designs detention centers or conducts raids. But leadership is not measured only by direct action—it is measured by what one chooses to profit from, tolerate, or ignore.
If a tribal nation can walk away from tens of millions of dollars to align its business decisions with its values, then a global investment firm managing hundreds of billions of dollars can do the same.
Divestment is not radical. It is responsible stewardship.
Public acknowledgment is not weakness. It is accountability.
And restoring trust with the Latino community in Los Angeles will require more than marketing campaigns or symbolic gestures. It will require clear, transparent separation from systems that criminalize migration and profit from fear.
The Moral Reckoning Ahead
Immigration detention centers, private surveillance firms, and bounty-style enforcement are not neutral investments. They are choices—choices about whose lives matter and whose pain is acceptable collateral.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has shown that another path is possible. One rooted in values, community accountability, and long-term moral clarity.
The question now is whether powerful investors tied to beloved public institutions are willing to do the same—or whether profit will continue to outrank empathy, integrity, and human dignity.
For a city like Los Angeles, and for a Latino community that has given so much to its teams, its economy, and its culture, the answer matters more than ever.
Dodgers Owner Mark Walter’s GEO Group Profits by Supplying ICE’s Immigration Bounty Hunters
