On today’s quarterly earnings call, for-profit prison operator GEO Group’s new CEO announced that this is an “unprecedented time in our company’s history.”
“We believe the scale of the opportunity before our company is unlike any we’ve previously experienced,” J. David Donahue said.
For-profit prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group are primed to benefit from Trump’s white supremacist agenda to round up, detain, and deport millions of immigrants. In January, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants who are charged with low-level offenses, including shoplifting, as well as more serious crimes. Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, is a former GEO Group lobbyist.
On today’s call, GEO Group estimated that based on public statements from ICE, implementation of the Laken Riley Act would require at least an additional 60,000 detention beds. Some estimates have put that number at over 110,000 beds. Executive Chairman George Zoley said the new law will also require a “significant ramp up” in electronic monitoring services.
Zoley said that they “expect the upside potential from all these opportunities could represent as much as $800 million to $1 billion in incremental annualized revenues.” The company is currently $1.7 billion in debt.
“This is a unique moment in our company’s history,” Zoley said. “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.”
Zoley said GEO Group is “the single largest contractor to ICE” and the “largest provider of secure transportation services for ICE.”
A GEO Group subsidiary contracts with ICE to transport deportees to their country of origin—another source of revenue for the company. Zoley said the company expects “an increase in the number of removal flights” which could generate $40 million to $50 million in annualized revenues.
“During 2024, we assisted in the transport and relocation travel of 160,000 persons,” he said. “We believe we can scale up materially for domestic and international travel for up to 500,000 individuals or more if called upon.”
Zoley said that because of “the unprecedented volume of new business opportunities confronting GEO” he “is inclined to stay beyond the end of my present employment agreement that expires July 1, 2026.”
“We believe our company faces an unprecedented opportunity at this time to play a role in supporting President Trump’s new administration policies,” said Zoley on today’s call. “We’ve taken several important steps to be prepared to meet that opportunity.”