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- Geo Group, one of the two leading US private prison companies, said the White House’s policies will fuel their growth for the foreseeable future
- The Florida-based group reported profits of $29.1 million and is adding thousands of beds for detainees at sites around the United States
- CoreCivic, the other leading private prison company, lifted its financial targets after reporting that second-quarter profits more than doubled to $38.5 million
NEW YORK: One of the biggest US private prison companies announced a share repurchase program on Wednesday, the latest sign of an industry boom from President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Geo Group, one of the two leading US private prison companies, said the White House’s policies will fuel their growth for the foreseeable future, even as executives pointed to staffing and infrastructure limitations that could constrain the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s target of hiring 10,000 workers is “very expensive and very complicated,” said Geo Executive Chairman George Zoley, predicting it will “take a long time” to reach that figure.
“You need more people to go across the country and identify people who are here unlawfully,” Zoley said on a conference call. “One person doesn’t go out and do this job by themselves. It’s a whole team of people.”
Florida-based Geo, which is adding thousands of beds for detainees at sites around the United States, reported profits of $29.1 million after losing $32.5 million in the year-ago period. Revenues rose 4.8 percent to $636.2 million.
The company, which is also seeing growth in its transportation business for ICE, said its board had authorized $300 million in share repurchases.
Company officials expect more of a revenue increase in 2026 from the ICE crackdown. By that point, four facilities currently being activated will be at capacity, resulting in annual revenues of $240 million.
Geo also has another 5,900 beds at six company facilities that are currently idle. If fully utilized by ICE, they could yield another $310 million in annual revenues, Zoley said.
But company officials suggested a widely-discussed Washington target of one million deported annually could be difficult in light of the constraints facing the operation.
Trump’s multi-year fiscal package approved by Congress in July triples ICE’s detention budget to $45 billion over four years. Administration officials have said they need 100,000 beds at detention centers to reach their mass-deportation goals.
Zoley estimated that private companies currently have capacity for 75,000 or 80,000 beds, leaving a gap that could be met at military bases or by the US states.
“They are communicating with many red states in particular,” said Zoley, who mentioned Florida, Texas and Louisiana among the Republican-controlled states whose public sectors are being enlisted.
“These are unchartered waters for the agency to expand their platform of detention nationally... to literally more than double the size of the previous administration,” he said. “It can’t be done overnight.”
Shares of Geo rose 2.6 percent.
After the stock market closed, CoreCivic, the other leading private prison company, lifted its financial targets after reporting that second-quarter profits more than doubled to $38.5 million.