Deportation Oligarchs & Trump: An 11,050% Return on Investment

Trump campaigned on a promise to massively increase the arrest, imprisonment, and expulsion of immigrants. The Republican Congress has delivered the tens of billions of dollars he needs to make that happen.

For 20 years the federal government has relied on private contractors to imprison and transport detained immigrants.

So these companies didn’t need a crystal ball to know in which basket to put their eggs during the 2024 campaign. The biggest private detention and removal contractors opened their pocket books for Trump and the GOP, and now they are reaping the payoff.

The two major private prison contractors, GEO Group and CoreCivic contributed $3,521,000 and $740,663, respectively, in the 2024 cycle. Over 90% of this money went to support Trump and GOP Congressional candidates. [1] CSI Aviation, ICE’s major air transportation contractor, donated another $442,826 — 100% to Trump and the Republicans.

The Payoff

The “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the Congressional GOP and signed by Trump in July boosted Department of Homeland Security spending by $170 BILLION [2] over four years to support the administration’s goal of quadrupling the number of immigrants expelled from the country to one million per year. [3]

The Washington Post reported internal ICE plans to ramp up contract awards as the new spending kicks in: “GEO Group, ICE’s largest contractor and a company with close ties to the Trump administration, is in line to receive at least nine new or modified detention contracts with a total estimated value of over $500 million a year.” GEO Group earlier this year stated its 2025 year-to-date estimated revenue was already up $240 million, owing to increased take up of previously awarded contracts.

The Washington Post also reported: “CoreCivic, the other largest private prison operator, would receive at least 12 contracts worth more than $500 million a year under the ICE plan — also roughly doubling that company’s annual revenue from ICE.” [4]

But, given the scale of the funding increases in the BBB for expulsion operations, these contracts are just the first trickle in the flood of tax dollars flowing toward the deportation industry. The budget bill earmarks an additional $30 billion over four years for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations which prior to the increases were budgeted at $4.5 billion. [5] This boost will quintuple ICE custody and detention spending, which stood at $3.27 billion in FY 2025, and increase its transportation and removal budget six-fold from the current level of $648 million. [6]

In FY 2025, ICE spent $1.2 billion on private prison contractors, with $500 million going to GEO Group and $200 million to CoreCivic. [7] It spent $500 million on private transportation including air charter services, all but $480 million going to CSI Aviation.

Here’s what that means for the big three expulsion contractors’ bottom line:

GEO Group

📈 + $2 billion a year

💰 5,670% ROI

CoreCivic

📈 + $800 million a year

💰 10,780% ROI

CSI Aviation

📈 + $2.4 billion a year

💰 54,100%

🚨 Collectively, the big three detention and removal contractors donated $4.7 million, and stand to receive $5.2 billion in increased revenue and $520 million in estimated profit in FY 2026. That’s an 11,050% ROI.

For the Trump administration, what’s good for the expulsion industry is good for America. Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, has stated that the agency needs “to get better at treating this like a business” which he wants to function “like Amazon, trying to get your product delivered in 24 hours.” [8]

Trump’s Border Czar Filmed Taking $50,000

Some deportation industry contractors aren’t content just to use political donations to get hold of government contracts. In September 2024, Tom Homan, hard-line acting director of ICE in Trump’s first administration and “Border Czar” in his second, was videotaped accepting a paper bag stuffed with $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents posing as prospective ICE contractors seeking his help in winning contracts from the future administration. [9]

At the time, Homan was running a consulting firm to help contractors win border-related contracts and “publicly touting that he would serve in a senior role carrying out Trump’s promised mass deportations if the GOP candidate won the election.” [10] Although the FBI and Justice Department dropped their investigation after Trump’s re-election, and administration spokespeople have dismissed the investigation as “blatantly political,” even Homan has not denied that he took the money.

Palantir & Trump’s Surveillance State

Trump’s immigration roundups depend on mass data gathering and analysis to locate their targets. They “compare biometrics against criminal records, alert agents to changes in address, follow cars with license plate readers, and rip and analyze data from phones, hard drives and cars.” [11]

Palantir Technologies’ data analysis plays a central role in building these surveillance capabilities. Palantir, which was cofounded in 2003 by extreme-right billionaire Peter Thiel, has been contracting with the federal intelligence, defense, and immigration agencies since 2008. In 2024 it made $1.2 billion from federal contracts and expects these revenues to more than double under Trump. ICE is one of its key customers, along with US Customs and Immigration Service awarding Palantir over a billion dollars since 2020. [12] In June, ICE gave Palantir a $30 million no-bid contract to expand its biometric surveillance capabilities, justified on the grounds that Trump’s executive order declaring an “invasion" by immigrants created an “urgent and compelling need” to award the contract without competition. [13]

Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel with Trump in 2016.

Image source: Drew Angerer, Getty Images

Although Thiel professes disdain for democratic politics and made no publicly disclosed political contributions in the 2023-2024 cycle, he bankrolled the 2022 Senate run of his former employee J.D. Vance to the tune of $15 million. Meanwhile, Alex Karp, Palantir’s current CEO and self-proclaimed “socialist,” donated $1 million for Trump’s inauguration.

Since Trump’s reelection, Palantir’s share price has rocketed by over 500%, adding $300 billion to its market cap and $15 billion to the personal fortune of Thiel, who owns 10% of Palantir stock. [14] Palantir’s success has also personally enriched Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and key architect of his immigration policy, who disclosed up to $250,000 in Palantir stock in June - one of his largest individual stock holdings. Eleven other Trump White House staffers own Palantir stock. [15]

Meet the Deportation Profiteers

Image source: GEO Group

George Zoley Founder and Executive Chairman, GEO Group

Total public political donations in 2024 cycle: $238,600 [16]

Bloomberg Net Worth in 2024: $250 million

Bloomberg Net Worth in 2025: $300 million

George Zoley’s wealth is tied to the fortunes and stock price of GEO Group. According to a Bloomberg profile, Zoley had decided to retire at age 75 in 2024, but remained to reap the company’s contributions and subsequent contracts.

“(GEO Group) board in February 2025 unanimously handed Zoley a stock grant worth roughly $5.5 million, the biggest award he’s received since it went public. In 2021, he was awarded a lucrative retirement bonus that’s already worth more than $7 million and will rise to an eight-digit sum if he stays on for another five years.” [17] Right now, Zoley is excited by the current surge in business, telling investors: “We’ve never seen anything like this before.” [18]

GEO has aggressively worked the revolving door between government and contractors. Daniel Bible moved from head of ICE’s deportations division to GEO just before Trump’s reelection, after blocking competing of GEO’s electronic tagging contract under Biden, Pam Bondi lobbied for GEO in 2019. Matthew Albence, the former acting director of ICE during the first Trump administration is head of client relations. Henry Lucero, who once oversaw deportation officers during Trump’s era, and Daniel Ragsdale, a former ICE leader during the Obama administration, are also on the company payroll. [19]

Image source: CSI Aviation

Allen Weh Founder, CSI Aviation

Total public political donations in 2024 cycle: $442,826

Allen Weh is CEO of the main company providing air charter flights for ICE deportations. Weh was previously the chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party and ran for Republican nominee for US Senate in 2014 and New Mexico Governor in 2010.

CSI hosted a Trump campaign event at Albuquerque in July 2024. [20]

Weh’s company CSI Aviation was awarded $1.6 billion in federal contracts to manage deportation flights for ICE, which it subcontracts out to multiple charter airlines. ICE used one of these flights to ship detainees to El Salvador’s CECOT prison camp in violation of a federal court order. [21] CSI Aviation’s major subcontractors include Avelo Airways which has attracted controversy and protests for becoming the first commercial airline to participate in ICE expulsions. [22]

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