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Mass deportation' would boost profits

Contractors are sued in nearly every step of the US immigration process

By: Nick Penzenstadier
and Lauren Villagran
USA Today

..... The companies quietly running the federal government immigration detention and deportation system are anticipating a potentially massive payday should Donald Trump return to the White House.
..... Trump has promised a "mass deportation" that would round up millions of immigrants living in the country unlawfully to detain and deport them - an effort that could take 10 years and cost nearly a trillion dollars, according to the American Immigration Council.
..... The federal government already relies on a network of for-profit enforcement. to meet the increased demand, experts say, it would need to scale-up those private partnerships.
..... "With a mass deportation plan, you need a mass detention plan," said Jesse Franzblau, a senior policy analyst at the National Immigrate Justice Center. "we will likely see an attempt to dramatically expand the detention apparatus to hold people they would deport."
..... The template can already be found at the border.
..... The Department of Homeland Security has more than a decade of experience using private contractors to set up outdoor detention facilities for recent migrants.
..... The Department of Heath and Human Services has set up similar "tent cities" to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children.
..... While a reliance on the private sector has enabled both Democrat and Republican administrations to quickly scale up detention and deportation capacity, government watchdogs say the contracts can come with drawbacks, including overspending and a lack of oversight. In the past auditors found deficiencies and, in some cases, substandard conditions in contractor-run detention facilities and shelters.
..... A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs enforcement, or ICE, said in an email that the agency conducts "multi-layered oversight" of its contractors to "ensure non-citizens are treated humanely."
..... HHS didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.

Enforcement is 'big business'

..... Corporations with federal contracts for security, transportation, detention and deportation - worth millions or billions of dollars - would likely rap the largest rewards in an expansion of immigration enforcement, experts told USA Today.
..... The players include publicly traded detention center operators like GEO Group and CoreCivic; privately held companies such as MVM Incorporated, which buses immigrants between detention sites; and charter flight companies such as CSI Aviation Services that supply planes to fly immigrants to their home countries.
..... Even as the Biden-Harris administration ended the practice of suing private contractors to run federal prisons DHS awarded contracts to the same companies for immigrant detention, GEO Group and CoreCivic among them.
..... In its most recent quarterly earnings call with investors, executives at GEO Group signaled the company is standing by for a possible Trump presidency and policy shift that could boost payments to its 17 detention centers under contract with ICE. Those federal contracts are worth roughly $1 billion annually.
..... Representatives from GEO Group didn't respond to request for comment.
..... CoreCivic representatives recently told investors that Election Day [11/05/2024] will be a significant fork in the road for their business.
..... In an earnings call, CoreCivic executives told analysts they were idling the company's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley through a 90-day window that would extend past Election Day. [11/05/2024] The detention center held women and children before the Biden-Harris administration canceled CoreCivic's $150 million contract in June. [2024]
..... The ICE spokesperson said that immigration detention is "non-punitive," and the agency detains non-citizens only where required by law.
..... Detention contracts offer flexibility and the opportunity "to procure beds at a reduced rate," the spokesperson said, "thereby saving taxpayer money."
..... Former Trump administration officials say a mass deportation would require a ramp-up of detention capacity with the help of the U.S. military, local governments and private contractors.
..... "You're are going to need initial buildup, either through private contractors or county jails," said Mark Morgan, who served as acting head of U.S. customs and Broader Protection during the Trump administration.
..... Ryan Gustin, a CoreCivic spokesman, said the company plays a "valued but limited role" in the nation;s immigration system and has worked for both Democrat and Republican administrations.
..... "It's solely at our government partners' discretion when, where and how they want to work with us," he said.
..... Congress currently funds ICE to hold 41,500 people in detention each day. The number of beds funded per day peaked around 55,000 during the Trump administration.
..... Deporting 1 million people per year, the American Immigration Council estimates, would require ICE to increase its detention capacity by a factor of 24.

One-way tickets

..... At the end of any deportation process, the final step comes when detained immigrates are marched in shackles up stairs, onto a jet bound for their home counties.
..... Those one-way tickets on ICE Air are big money-makers for federal contractors like Classic Air Charter, a tiny Florida-based charter broker that landed nearly $800 million in contracts form ICE last year. [2023]
..... Company representatives, including owner Dan Carson, didn't respond to inquiries from USA Today.
..... The Biden administration is on track to record 1,600 deportation flights this year [2024] - all of them charter flights, according to Witness at the Border, a nonprofit watchdog group that tracks deportation flights daily.
..... With Trump targeting deportations in the millions, a second administration would have to increase the number of flights dramatically.

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