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Here's some of [our report](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/06/trump-arrest-immigrants-private-prisons?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tmp-reddit):
The GEO Group and CoreCivic, the largest companies that provide detention space for ICE, seemed likely to reap a windfall after their stocks soared in the weeks leading up to last year’s inauguration of President Donald Trump.
But while Trump’s deportation machine had explosive growth, its reach hasn’t lived up to Wall Street expectations. Stock prices for both companies slumped. Despite a series of immigration blitzes and high-profile raids, the government didn’t use as much detention space as investors expected.
Detention industry experts and other observers believe all that could change this year, with the immigration system, and privately run holding facilities, expected to grow even larger.
“Once Trump was elected, there was a rush and belief that all this was going to occur at the snap of a finger,” said Joe Gomes, an equity analyst for Noble Capital Markets, an investment bank. “It’s just taken a little longer than many investors thought to see these numbers really jump up.”
On his first day in office, Trump reversed an executive order from former President Joe Biden to curb the use of private companies to operate federal prisons for the Justice Department though they continued to be used for immigration detention. Days later, the first piece of legislation Trump signed into law, the Laken Riley Act, made it easier to detain undocumented immigrants accused of low-level crimes.
At the beginning of 2025, contractors had about a dozen prison facilities sitting empty, ready to be reactivated. GEO Group seemed particularly well-suited.
“This is a unique moment in our company’s history, and we believe we are well-positioned to scale up our diversified segments in secure housing, transportation, electronic monitoring to meet the changing needs of this new administration, and to continue to enhance value for our shareholders,” GEO Group founder George Zoley said in February.
By summer, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” was signed into law, approving $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement.
Oddly enough, the price of GEO Group’s stock, which had nearly tripled between the waning months of the presidential campaign and Inauguration Day, then plummeted. At the end of 2025, GEO Group’s stock was trading around $16 per share, down from a high of $36.46 on Trump’s second day in office. Stock prices also fell for CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America.
“Investors got over their skis,” said Gomes, the analyst.
[Read more](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/06/trump-arrest-immigrants-private-prisons?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tmp-reddit) (no paywall or ads)