Private prison giant GEO Group ramps up lobbying on immigrant surveillance

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GEO Group, one of the world’s largest private prison companies, is ramping up its lobbying operation as lawmakers in Washington eye budget cuts to “alternatives to detention” programs.

The private prison giant spent $690,000 on federal lobbying during the first six months of 2024, more than it spent in the first half of any other year during the Biden administration, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of lobbying disclosures filed on July 21. During former President Donald Trump’s administration, GEO Group lobbying expenditures hit a new record but then started to decline after Biden entered the White House.

Shortly after taking office in January 2021, Biden issued an executive order aimed at phasing out the Justice Department’s contracts with private prisons. But the private prison industry had already started to turn to immigrant detention and surveillance, which falls under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE.

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This pivot began under former President Barack Obama in 2011 when GEO Group acquired BI Inc., a company that manufactures GPS tracking devices. Around that time, GEO Group began lobbying on “alternatives to detention within ICE,” according to federal lobbying disclosures.

In 2020, BI Inc. inked a five-year $2.2 billion contract with ICE to continue running the agency’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which the company has been working with ICE on since 2004. The program uses technology such as ankle monitors and phone apps to surveil immigrants instead of keeping them in custody.

The program is one of ICE’s “alternatives to detention” initiatives. Tae Johnson, former acting director of ICE under both Biden and former President Donald Trump, described the program as a “humane, cost-effective, and community-based case management service.”

But since the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program launched in 2004, and expanded in 2011, it has come under intense scrutiny by researchers and lawmakers who claim it is too punitive.

In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, 25 Democrats wrote that immigration authorities “cannot reasonably call Isap an ‘alternative to detention’ if the program effectively subjects more immigrants to the agency’s supervision while it simultaneously expands formal detention programs.”

A 2022 Guardian investigation found that BI Inc.’s surveillance technology malfunctions, sometimes injuring people, and that the company’s case managers have few protocols governing key decisions they make regarding the duration and level of surveillance.

As of 2023, funding from ICE makes up nearly half of GEO Group’s total revenue, according to the company’s latest annual report. Of the approximately $1 billion in revenue GEO Group gets from the agency, about $337.8 million is related to the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program.

In 2023, Congress was unable to pass several agencies’ spending bills for the 2024 fiscal year, including DHS. Instead, it approved those agencies’ budgets for the first six months of the fiscal year, spanning from October to March. With another six months of funding left to be decided, GEO Group has ramped up its lobbying efforts.

GEO Group lobbied on the DHS appropriations bills and the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bills for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years. It has also lobbied on the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would limit eligibility for asylum, continue construction of the wall between Mexico and the U.S., among other provisions.

The company disclosed lobbying on “federal contract monitoring and supervision services,” “location monitoring services,” “issues related to deportation of federal prisoners” and “issues related to ICE, immigration enforcement, and alternatives to detention.”

GEO Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But Kyle Virgien, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project who focuses on immigrant detention, told OpenSecrets that these issues all concern the use of surveillance technology.

Jason Morin, a professor at the University of Southern California who studies the political influence of the private prison industry, suggested that the reason why GEO Group might have ramped up its lobbying efforts is the potential for a loss in income and funding.

In 2023, fewer immigrants were placed in the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. As a result, GEO Group saw revenue from “electronic monitoring and supervision services” fall from $132.6 million in the first quarter of 2023 to $86.8 million in the first quarter of 2024. The company’s second quarter earnings report will be released on Aug. 7.

In addition, the White House’s budget proposal for the 2025 fiscal year would cut funding for ICE’s Alternatives to Detention programs from $442.7 million for 2024 to $359.6 million.

GEO Group’s current roster of lobbyists include multiple former government officials who have since entered the “revolving door,” including former Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.), who previously served on the House Appropriations Committee.

Another GEO Group lobbyist is Lionel Aguirre, a former staffer for Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) who was on the House Homeland Security Committee at the time and is currently the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security. GEO Group also hired Sarah Beatty Rogers, former Chief of Staff for former Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) when he was on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“Detention facilities can only hold so many individual people,” said Morin. “And so this allows them to further expand their grip on immigrant detention, whether that's within a physical boundary or outside of that boundary.”

“In the private prison industry, it's incredibly important for these companies to have intense lobbying efforts,” Virgien told OpenSecrets. “Their business is basically dependent on government money flowing into their bank accounts.”

Roby, Aguirre and Rogers did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.