This story originally appeared in Truthout on Aug. 06, 2025. It is shared here with permission.
On GEO Group’s second quarterly earnings call, the private prison company’s executive chairman, George Zoley, told participants that the company was pursuing “unprecedented growth opportunities” as President Donald Trump rapidly expands the U.S.’s detention and deportation apparatus.
As with their previous earnings call, GEO Group had much to celebrate. Notably, Zoley has donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and PACs, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has defended Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda at every turn, is a former GEO Group lobbyist.
“Congrats on the quarter and all the positive news” and the “fantastic growth opportunities ahead of us,” one participant told executives during the question and answer session.
For the second quarter of 2025, GEO Group reported total revenues of $636.2 million compared with $607.2 million for the second quarter of 2024, although the company’s expenses increased by approximately 7 percent. The company’s net debt totals approximately $1.7 billion, compared with $1.68 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter of 2025.
“We have increased our budget to approximately $100 million in physical plant and technology improvements to better position GEO in responding to ICE’s expanding needs,” said GEO Group CFO Mark J. Suchinski.
The Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation agenda has meant lucrative contracts for GEO Group. The company is under contract for approximately 20,000 beds at 21 facilities, “the highest level of ICE utilization in our company’s history,” Zoley said. The company’s contracts represent “more than one-third of the current ICE detention levels, which we estimate to be approximately 57,000 beds nationwide.”
In 2024 alone, Zoley contributed more than $150,000 dollars to Republican candidates and causes, including Trump, the Republican National Committee, and Republican PACs, according to Truthout’s analysis of Open Secrets data.
Since January, GEO Group has entered into government contracts for an 1,800-bed immigration jail in Baldwin, Michigan, and a 1,000-bed immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey, which are expected to bring in more than $85 million and $60 million in annual revenues, respectively. In June, the company announced that it was reopening a lock-up in Georgia that can hold more than 1,800 people and, when operating at full occupancy, is expected to generate approximately $66 million in annual revenue. GEO Group also announced that month that it had entered into a five-year contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to provide transportation services across 14 states. The contract is expected to bring in approximately $29 million in annual revenue.
Zoley said that the Trump administration’s plan to detain people on military bases is another potential source of revenue for the company, and that they’re identifying “existing ICE facilities where we can add approximately 5,000 combined beds using temporary and permanent facilities.”
“All of these efforts are aimed at placing our company in the best competitive position possible to pursue what we continue to believe are unprecedented growth opportunities as a long standing support services provider for ICE with a 40 year long track record,” he said.
GEO Group also expects to profit from increased electronic monitoring of immigrants.
“We’ve stocked up the inventory of our monitoring devices, and are well-positioned to scale up the use of GPS tracking for non detained illegal aliens once the ICE detention capacity has been maximized,” Zoley said.
In July, GEO Group gave raises to Zoley and the company’s CEO. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company wrote that it had approved increasing the target bonus and target stock award from 100 percent to 150 percent of their base salary, in part because of the “unprecedented business opportunities that the Company is experiencing.” The chair’s base salary is $1.1 million, while the CEO’s is $1 million.
That good fortune comes at the expense of the thousands of people locked up in GEO Group’s immigration jails. The company has been repeatedly accused of detaining people in inhumane conditions. People imprisoned at Delaney Hall, the lock-up in Newark, New Jersey, have reported that they’re denied food, access to clean water, medication and visits with their family.
But on the call, there was no mention of human rights abuses or families torn apart. With good reason, executives were optimistic about the company’s future. “On a personal note, I would like to thank the GEO board for extending my employment contract to April 2029, allowing me to participate in guiding our company through the remainder of this presidential administration,” Zoley said.
This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg.