ActiveInvestorMag.com: Detention Economy

Justice Department opens a criminal investigation into Corey Lewandowski’s time at DHS

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:17:00 GMT

The probe follows an inspector general referral on contracting during Kristi Noem’s tenure, including a $220 million ad campaign and ties to GEO Group.

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Corey Lewandowski over his tenure at the Department of Homeland Security, according to sources. The department is looking into allegations involving Lewandowski, a former top adviser to ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Investigators are examining whether he profited from his work for Noem.

The DHS inspector general referred its investigation of Lewandowski to the Justice Department for review. The inquiry follows that referral into potential contracting fraud during Noem’s tenure as Homeland Security secretary. The probe centres on contracting decisions made during her brief time at DHS.

Lewandowski, the first manager of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, served as a top aide to Noem. Trump fired Noem in March.

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Detainees at a Georgia ICE facility stage a hunger strike as lawmakers demand inquiries

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:25:00 GMT

A hunger strike at a privately run Georgia detention centre entered a second week as members of Congress pressed for investigations into conditions at other facilities.

Immigrants held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in southeast Georgia are on hunger strike, protesting what they say are prolonged detentions and conditions inside, NPR reported. WABE reported that the strike at the Folkston ICE Processing Center continued into a second week and that an organiser had been deported, and described the site as a private prison operated by The GEO Group under contract with ICE.

The Insider reported that Russians have joined a hunger strike at a third ICE detention centre this month, citing relatives of detainees who spoke to an independent outlet. In El Paso, detainees at Camp East Montana, an ICE facility on Fort Bliss, are seeking independent monitors after deaths and alleged failures at the site.

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San Antonio sues Homeland Security to stop an East Side detention centre

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 21:28:00 GMT

The city says federal officials skipped the required environmental review before converting a warehouse into an immigration detention facility.

The city of San Antonio sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday to stop the agencies opening an immigration detention centre. The mayor said the city filed the action that morning over the proposed ICE detention facility planned for the East Side, and the city filed its lawsuit over the facility the same day.

The legal argument is procedural. The city says federal officials failed to carry out the required review before converting a warehouse into a detention centre, and is seeking to halt development of the planned facility over environmental review requirements. Bloomberg Government recorded the case as an environmental suit against the retrofit of a San Antonio warehouse into an immigration detention facility.

The site is a building on the south-eastern loop of the city, at 542 SE Loop, and the city alleges the conversion proceeded without the steps it was owed.

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GEO Group redeems $650 million of notes and lifts its buyback to $1.25 billion

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 14:37:00 GMT

The detention contractor is calling its 2029 secured notes, extending its revolving credit facility to 2031 and raising the amount of stock it may repurchase.

The GEO Group delivered notice to redeem all $650.0 million of its 8.625 percent senior secured notes due 2029, with the redemption set for 15 October 2026 at a price of $1,043.13. The company raised its share buyback authorisation to $1.25 billion.

It also entered into an amended and restated credit agreement. That agreement extends a $550 million revolver to 2031 and lifts incremental capacity to $750 million. A filing summary dated 5 October 2026 described the package as enhancing the credit facility and shareholder flexibility, and referred to the Adelanto sale alongside contract-driven growth potential. A separate account summarised the same steps as a redemption of the $650 million notes and an amendment to the credit facility.

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GEO Group files a federal challenge to California’s new detainee law

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 21:30:00 GMT

The private prison operator sued the state attorney general over SB 942, the statute it calls an unconstitutional attempt to regulate immigration detention.

GEO Group filed a federal lawsuit challenging California’s new detention centre law, arguing that SB 942 is an unconstitutional attempt to regulate the facilities it runs. The suit was brought against California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The Los Angeles Times reported the action as a private prison company suing the state over a civil rights law for immigrant detainees.

The company houses immigrants in detention centres near Bakersfield and in Southern California, and set out its objection to the state’s authority in the lawsuit. GEO Group operates several detention centres for people held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and is challenging the new California law directly rather than seeking an exemption. Coverage framed the dispute as a new California immigrant rights law facing a legal challenge from a major private prison company.

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DHS pays GEO Group $950 million for California detention sites

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:31:00 GMT

The government is buying the buildings while the private operator keeps the management contracts.

The Trump administration agreed to pay $950 million to buy three California immigration detention facilities from GEO Group. The Center Square and the Walton Tribune reported the purchase from the private prison corporation for $950 million, noting that Adelanto ICE Processing Center is one name covering two properties. The Victorville Daily Press reported that the three-facility complex, with a combined 2,644 bed spaces, sold for $950 million according to GEO Group. Breitbart described the deal as four jails and listed Adelanto East among them.

Desert View Annex has 704 beds. GEO Group will continue to manage daily operations under long-term contracts. The ICE contract for GEO Group to provide support services at the three facilities is not altered by the sale and does not expire until 2034.

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DHS pays $950 million for California ICE jails as GEO redeems $650 million of notes

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 21:24:00 GMT

The federal government is buying detention real estate outright while the operator clears secured debt and opens room for buybacks.

The Department of Homeland Security is paying $950 million to buy California immigration detention facilities from The GEO Group. GEO Group announced the sale on Monday. Accounts differ on the count: one describes three facilities, another two detention centers, and a third four jails. The deal includes Adelanto East, and the facilities owned by GEO include the two buildings that make up the Adelanto complex.

GEO is not leaving the sites. Its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide support services for the facilities will not be altered by the sale and does not expire until 2034. The Government Accountability Office has warned that the purchase lacked a required step, and one account noted that buying existing detention facilities has the potential to insulate ICE’s network from state officials’ efforts to restrict private operators.

Separately, GEO delivered a notice of redemption for all of its senior secured notes due 2029 and amended and extended its revolving credit facility. The redemption covers $650 million of notes and secures flexibility for a $1.25 billion buyback.

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DHS pays $950 million for GEO Group’s Adelanto detention complex

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:34:00 GMT

The federal government bought three California immigration detention facilities from GEO Group, which will keep operating them.

GEO Group has completed the sale of three immigration detention facilities in Adelanto, California. The US government paid $950 million for the complex, a price confirmed across coverage of the transaction. The Trump administration agreed to the purchase with the stated aim of increasing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s control over detention capacity.

GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison corporation, announced the sale on Monday. The company will keep running the facilities and plans to use part of the proceeds for other purposes. One tracker described Adelanto as the fifth private detention site the Department of Homeland Security has bought since July.

The stated rationale was operational control. Both the price and the purpose were reported together: the government paid $950 million with the aim of increasing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s control over detention capacity. Adelanto is described as the fifth private detention site the Department of Homeland Security has bought since July.

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GEO Group sells three Adelanto ICE facilities to the government for $950 million

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 21:35:00 GMT

The private prison operator keeps the service contract, lifts its buyback and raises guidance, while the shares send mixed signals.

The GEO Group completed the $950 million sale of three immigration processing facilities in Adelanto, California, to the US federal government. The company, a Florida-based private prison corporation, announced the transaction on Monday. The buyer is the Department of Homeland Security, and the purchase is the fifth private detention site DHS has bought since July.

Ownership changes but operations do not. GEO expects to continue providing support services to all three Adelanto facilities under its existing contract with ICE, and will keep running the complex it has just sold. Alongside the sale, GEO boosted its stock buyback plan, and the company raised its full-year outlook, citing stronger detention demand.

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California imposes a 25% tax on private immigration detention operators

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:25:00 GMT

Governor Newsom signed AB 1633, described as the first US law taxing private ICE detention companies.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a 25% tax on private detention centres in California. The measure is AB 1633, described as the first US law taxing private ICE detention companies at 25%.

All eight ICE detention centres in California are privately operated, and the legislation could have significant consequences for federal immigration enforcement in the state as a result. GEO Group, a corrections company, owns five of them, and Imperial Valley Gateway Center LLC operates another. GEO Group also runs the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County’s high desert. One account called the move the first of its kind in the country.

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Supreme Court Takes Up ICE Detention Policy as Private Operators Expand

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:31:00 GMT

The justices agreed to review mandatory immigration detention in the same week an operator signed a 355 million dollar contract and Colorado sued to block another.

The US Supreme Court agreed to take up the administration’s immigration detention policy, which governs whether people are held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention while their deportation cases are pending. The court agreed to rule on ICE’s mandatory detention policy. In July 2025 the administration introduced new guidance directing federal immigration officers on the question now before the justices.

Coverage described the case as a review of the administration’s detention policy for immigrants and, in one framing, as a review of indefinite immigrant detention. It is the policy question that sits underneath the contracting activity now expanding across several states.

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Supreme Court takes up the administration’s mandatory immigration detention policy

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 21:29:00 GMT

The justices agreed to review a policy that holds tens of thousands of immigrants in detention.

The Supreme Court granted review of the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy for immigrants. The court agreed to review the mandatory ICE detention policy for immigrants. The announcement that it will consider the issue came in an order from the court. The Hill reported the case alongside the names of the president and the Solicitor General, John Sauer.

The policy means that tens of thousands of immigrants are held in detention. The Korea Times framed the question before the court as indefinite immigrant detention. The Boston Globe reported the grant as a review of the president’s detention policy for immigrants. PBS NewsHour and El Paso Matters carried the same framing, that the court granted review of the administration’s mandatory detention policy. The Hill’s own headline described the step as the Supreme Court taking up the mandatory detention policy.

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Colorado sues to block GEO Group’s planned ICE detention centre in Hudson

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:22:00 GMT

The state’s attorney general asked a federal court to void the contract and halt work on a former prison that the company would reopen for immigration detention.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed suit on Tuesday in federal district court to stop a planned immigration detention centre in Hudson, Colorado. The suit names the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which have contracted with The GEO Group to renovate and operate the former Hudson facility.

GEO Group has signed a multiyear contract with the Trump administration to reopen the shuttered prison. DHS announced plans over the summer to contract with the company to renovate and run the former state prison.

The lawsuit says DHS and ICE skipped a required environmental review before contracting with GEO Group to reopen the site. The state also alleges that the agencies violated federal administrative procedure in awarding the work. Coverage framed the filing as resting on environmental grounds.

The facility would hold about 1,200 beds. It is owned by GEO Group and operated as a private prison until it closed in 2013.

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Watchdog finds ICE wasted millions in its detention build-out

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:41:00 GMT

A Government Accountability Office report says the agency spent without a strategic plan, including on tents and warehouses that went unused.

ICE has received more than $75 billion to expand operations since President Trump returned to office, and wasted millions on scaled-back and mismanaged projects, a new GAO report found. The report found that the agency invested billions in six new initiatives without conducting necessary analyses. In rushing to execute the mass deportation agenda, it failed to properly develop a strategic plan.

In the absence of a comprehensive strategic plan to guide detention expansion, the report concluded, ICE “has wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives” and lacks important information. Spending included unused tents and warehouses that were later abandoned. Other accounts put the waste in the tens of millions on what they described as uninformed detention projects. The report accuses the administration of wasting federal dollars amid its efforts to expand ICE detention facilities. Coverage of the report ranged from unused tents and warehouses to a broader charge of uninformed project selection.

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CoreCivic chief executive resigns for health reasons and a company veteran takes over

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 14:27:00 GMT

Patrick Swindle steps down after less than a year to treat pancreatic cancer, and Lucibeth Mayberry becomes president and chief executive.

CoreCivic said on Friday that Patrick Swindle had resigned as chief executive officer and president for health reasons and that Lucibeth Mayberry had been appointed in his place. Swindle is pursuing treatment for stage-four metastatic pancreatic cancer, and the change follows less than a year in the post. Mayberry was named president, chief executive and a director on September 25, 2026.

Mayberry is an internal appointment, described by the Nashville Business Journal as a company veteran of 23 years taking the helm. The company’s own announcement points to her earlier roles in contracts and proposals and as managing director for state partnership relations, and frames her mandate as continuing the existing strategy. CoreCivic is the private prison and detention operator behind facilities including the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.

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Watchdog finds ICE wasted funds rushing to buy detention capacity

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:22:00 GMT

A Government Accountability Office report says the immigration agency committed billions to new detention initiatives without the analysis or the strategic plan to support them.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has received more than $75 billion to expand operations since Trump returned to office, and wasted millions on scaled-back and mismanaged projects, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. The report found the agency failed to properly develop a strategic plan, and that it invested billions in six new initiatives without conducting the necessary analyses.

The report’s conclusion was blunt: “[i]n the absence of a comprehensive strategic plan to guide detention expansion, ICE has wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives and lacks important information about” what it is buying. A separate summary said the agency did not establish the cost to maintain facilities or which ones would actually be necessary.

The individual commitments are large. ICE authorised the transfer of $2.2 billion to purchase four detention facilities from the private prison contractor CoreCivic, with $1.5 billion placed in escrow with Chicago Title Insurance. The agency also purchased eleven large warehouses across the country for $1.07 billion as part of a plan backed by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, an idea that was subsequently scaled back. The totals included $45 billion to expand detention capacity and nearly $30 billion more for the agency’s arrest and deportation operations.

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Watchdog finds ICE wasted tens of millions on detention projects it never contracted

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 21:20:00 GMT

A GAO report released by three Senate Democrats found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies spent public money on detention sites chosen without the planning the expansion required.

An investigation found that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies have wasted tens of millions of dollars pursuing detention projects, the Associated Press reported. NewsNation put one figure on it, reporting that ICE wasted $20 million on migrant detention because of poor planning, according to the watchdog.

Senators Dick Durbin, Jack Reed and Gary Peters released the Government Accountability Office report, which detailed the expansion of immigration detention and referred to an ICE detention facility on Fort Bliss known as Camp East Montana. The senators’ account noted that a stated goal was not reflected in ICE’s own detention expansion documents.

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ICE signs billions in new detention contracts as GEO Group shares slide

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 14:20:00 GMT

Federal detention capacity is expanding across several states while the largest listed operator’s stock falls on a detainee transfer.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has signed contracts worth up to $7.3 billion to expand detention in 5 states. One of the sites is a facility ICE stopped using in 2014 and that the private prison operator GEO Group now runs for the US Marshals Service. The Sacramento Bee reported separately on a reported $1.2 billion detention expansion in Arizona, where ICE contracts with CoreCivic to house immigration detainees at the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center.

The spending capacity behind this is large. IBTimes reported that ICE has $75 billion for the administration’s immigration crackdown, but still has no Senate-confirmed leader.

The shares went the other way. GEO Group stock fell 4.7 percent. TipRanks attributed the slide to a detainee transfer shock and described the stock as experiencing volatility. Investing.com pointed to the company’s heavy reliance on government detention contracts, with ICE agreements representing a substantial share of them.

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Private prison operators trade near highs as ICE detention revenue grows

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 21:12:00 GMT

CoreCivic is close to a fifty-two week high on detention contracts, while GEO Group faces a state lawsuit and a contract renewal vote.

CoreCivic stock closed at 35.26 US dollars on the New York Stock Exchange on 18 September, close to its fifty-two week high of 36.55 dollars, with detention revenues growing. The company has said it expects to earn 100 million dollars a year operating one facility alone, and it runs several other Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centres across the country. The share price is within about a dollar and a half of the fifty-two week high, having closed at 35.26 against a peak of 36.55.

The operating record is drawing scrutiny at the same time. Detainees at Oklahoma’s Diamondback Correctional Facility, described as one of the biggest ICE detention centres in the United States, needed court orders to obtain medical care. A woman held at the CoreCivic-operated Eloy facility in southern Arizona said the water was not clean. Washington state is suing the Florida-based GEO Group, which operates detention facilities nationwide, and state health inspectors are involved.

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