Private prisons announce $1.4 billion in revenue as immigration detentions climb

The CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center stands in the Kern County desert awaiting reopening as a federal immigrant detention facility under contract with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California City, California on July 10, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

America's two largest private prison companies, CoreCivic and GEO Group, are reporting a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue over the spring as immigration detention closes in on record levels.

Those revenues announced Thursday do not include net proceeds of $1.6 billion made by CoreCivic after the recent sale of four of their facilities to the Department of Homeland Security. Patrick Swindle, CoreCivic's President and CEO, told investors on an earnings call that that works out to an average rate of $307,000 per bed.

The earnings — from April through June of this year — come as the U.S. is holding almost 66,000 people in immigration detention , nearing record levels not seen since January, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research center. Both companies say they're also finding other revenue opportunities, like ankle monitors for Haitian immigrants who recently lost their protected immigration status.

Swindle said that CoreCivic's total revenue went up by just over 27% this spring compared to the same quarter last year, for a total of $684.9 million. CoreCivic exceeded expectations in a period that included the government shutdown, Swindle said. This was accomplished in part by lowering operating costs — meaning the business of detaining people is becoming cheaper — and because of more people being put in detention.

CoreCivic's sales of detention centers to the government won't be reflected until next quarter — but they are part of a larger strategy to meet President Trump's goal of having 100,000 people in detention at once. CoreCivic made a deal to continue operating the detention centers and also hopes to build more. Meanwhile, GEO Group says they're also in talks to do the same.

GEO Group CEO George Zoley said in his company's earnings call also on Thursday that thanks to 2025 contracts, total revenues are up to $732.1 million — an increase of nearly $96 million or 15% — over the same period last year.

GEO Group's government ties run deep. Former GEO Group executive David Venturella is the acting director of ICE. In a recent letter, he told lawmakers he has divested his GEO Group stock.