ICE-Cold Cash: Private Prison Companies and Executives Have Donated Millions to Members of Congress

This story is being co-published by In These Times and The Appeal.

Leading for-profit prison companies donated about half a million dollars to Republican members of Congress currently in office, and $58,000 to Democratic congressmembers, from 2021 through 2025, according to an investigation by The Appeal. Executives at these firms have also donated millions of dollars to candidates, political parties, and political action committees (PACs).

More than 70,000 people are currently being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the majority of them are incarcerated in private prisons. Of the 38 people who died while in ICE custody, from 2025 through Feb. 1, 71 percent were held in for-profit facilities, according to data collected by lawyer and journalist Andrew Free.

The Appeal has compiled information on every sitting member of Congress who has received donations from two of the largest private prison companies that contract with ICE — CoreCivic and GEO Group — along with the smaller Management & Training Corporation (MTC). The Appeal reviewed hundreds of records published by OpenSecrets and the Federal Election Commission, and is publishing the results of its investigation in a searchable database. 

The Appeal’s investigation revealed that:

— Democratic Reps. Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) each received a total of $21,000 in donations from private prison companies — more than any other sitting member of Congress. CoreCivic and MTC donated to Bishop; CoreCivic, GEO Group, and MTC donated to Cuellar. CoreCivic and GEO Group each operate facilities in Cuellar’s district. 

— Two other Democrats also received donations from private prison companies. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi received a total of $10,000 from GEO Group and MTC, and MTC donated $5,000 to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. 

— From 2021 through 2025, GEO Group executive chairman George Zoley and former CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger each made political contributions totaling more than one million dollars, including donations to the Republican National Committee and to PACs affiliated with President Donald Trump. (Last year, CoreCivic announced that Hininger would be leaving the company.) 

—Over the same five-year period, GEO Group’s PAC (Political Action Committee) outspent CoreCivic and MTC, donating more than $280,000 to current members of Congress. CoreCivic donated more than $248,000 while MTC donated more than $147,000.

It appears their investments have paid off.

Under President Trump, Congress has passed legislation to dramatically expand immigration detention and fund ICE at unprecedented levels, much to the delight of private prison executives. 

In 2025, GEO Group and CoreCivic​’s ICE contracts are expected to generate over one billion dollars in revenue for each company.

“I have worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods in my career with the company,” CoreCivic’s then-CEO Hininger said on an earnings call last year.

GEO Group’s CEO J. David Donahue has expressed the same sentiment, saying the company is ​“very excited to support the mission at hand.”

While executives rejoice, ICE agents have upended countless lives across the country. 

Last month, federal officers seized pre-schooler Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, when they arrived home from school in Minnesota. Arias and his son have a pending asylum case. 

The father and son were taken to CoreCivic’s South Texas Family Residential Center, often referred to as the Dilley facility, an immigration jail for families opened under President Obama in 2014. In 2024, the federal government ended its contract with CoreCivic and the facility closed, but the Trump administration reopened it last year. CoreCivic expects Dilley to generate approximately $180 million in revenue annually.

On Jan. 31, a judge ordered Ramos and Arias’s release, and they have since returned to their home in Minnesota. Children detained at the Dilley facility are allegedly routinely denied medical treatment; don’t have access to drinkable water, child-friendly foods, or hygiene supplies; and are subjected to sleep deprivation, according to a court filing submitted by children’s rights groups last year. There is currently a measles outbreak at the jail. 

Contracts with ICE ​“incentivize the incarceration of immigrants as a money-making scheme,” Stacy Suh, the Program Director at Detention Watch Network, told The Appeal.

“Perverse financial incentives are a bedrock of incarceration,” Suh said. ​“As long as detention exists, profiteering will exist — whether it’s a local elected official or a local government with a shrinking budget or by a corporation.”