The DHS Ditched its Warehouse Plan for Prisons Conversions
GEO Group’s liabilities are now profit engines for Trump and his allies
By Monik Slade, More Perfect Union
Trump’s DHS is buying shuttered prisons from GEO Group to turn them into immigration detention centers, while installing GEO Group executives in his administration.
This week, ICE and GEO Group released a plan to convert the shuttered Rivers Correctional Institution in Winton, North Carolina into a 1,400-bed detention facility — creating one of the biggest detention centers on the East Coast.
Under GEO Group’s operation, the facility underwent a class action lawsuit for routinely denying detainees medical care, leading to serious injuries and death before its closure in 2021.
On July 13, ICE announced a $500 million, five-year contract with GEO Group to turn the closed Big Horn Correctional Facility into an 1,100-bed detention facility, doubling the occupancy of the state’s largest detention center.
GEO Group estimates $85 million in annual revenue in its first full year of operation.
DHS began contracting private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic to take over shuttered prisons for conversion last year.
Trump’s immigration policies have been great for business: GEO Group saw a 700% increase in profit from 2024 to 2025, with 48% of its total revenue coming from ICE contracts.
It’s also good for Trump. In 2025, Trump traded between $281k and $990k in GEO Group and CoreCivic stocks.
GEO Group donated $500k to Trump’s inauguration while its PAC gave $1 million to the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. in 2024. The company’s founder and CEO each contributed over $11k to Trump’s Save America PAC.
Trump also appointed former GEO Group executives to head America’s deportation machine. In June, David Venturella, a former GEO Group executive, was appointed as acting director of ICE. Trump’s twice-acting border czar Tom Homan was also a paid consultant for GEO Group.
Former DHS advisor and Trump ally Corey Lewandowski asked GEO Group’s founder for payment in exchange for “protecting and growing” the company’s DHS contracts.
The Department of Homeland Security has seemingly abandoned its initial plan to transform warehouses into detention centers — now reviving shuttered private prisons as ICE facilities.
GEO Group gets paid, Trump continues his deportation machine, and hard-working Americans get a detention center in their backyard.