WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a private prison company a 15-year contract worth $1 billion to detain up to 1,000 immigrants in New Jersey, the first expansion of an immigrant detention center amid the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations.

“This detention center is the first to open under the new administration,” ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello said in a late Wednesday statement. “The location near an international airport streamlines logistics, and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President (Donald) Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities.”

On a Thursday earnings call, executives for one of the largest private prisons, GEO Group Inc., told investors they expect “unprecedented opportunities” under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown by providing detention bed capacity and increasing electronic monitoring services of immigrants.

The Newark detention center, Delaney Hall, will be the largest ICE processing facility and detention center on the East Coast, said George Zoley, the founder and executive chairman of GEO.

GEO has pushed for a contract with ICE to reopen that facility as a detention center and even sued New Jersey over its state law that bars private and public companies from contracting with ICE to detain immigrants.

Increase in bed capacity

Zoley said that GEO plans to increase its bed space capacity from 15,000 to 32,000. He said those additional 17,000 beds “could generate between $500 million and $600 million in incremental, annualized revenues.”

He added that the company is expected to activate all of its idle facilities across the country by the end of the year to meet Trump’s mission of mass deportation of people in the United States without legal authorization. An idle facility means it’s currently unused, but it can be up and running within 60 to 90 days, Zoley said.

Zoley said some idle GEO facilities are located in Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina. GEO currently operates ICE facilities in California, Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Washington state.

He said the federal government has expressed interest in those facilities, especially after Congress passed a bill that would require mandatory detention of immigrants charged or accused with property theft, known as the Laken Riley Act.

Based on that law, Zoley said, it’s estimated that ICE would need up to 60,000 detention beds. ICE currently has bed space capacity of 41,500 across the country.

Immigration attorneys and experts warned the bill would aid Trump’s campaign promise to enact mass deportations by requiring the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain a noncitizen on an arrest, charge or conviction of petty theft — a response to the murder of the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student for whom the measure is named.

As Trump signed the bill, which was his first during his second term, he announced his plans to direct the Department of Defense to use the naval base in Guantanamo Bay to house up to 30,000 migrants.

There are roughly 13.7 million people in the U.S. without legal authorization, according to a new analysis by the nonprofit think tank Migration Policy Institute.

Zoley said he expects an opportunity for GEO to be able to bid for more government contracts about halfway through the year after Congress passes a massive package through reconciliation that could provide billions for border security and immigration enforcement.

The House and Senate first have to adopt a budget resolution before unlocking the reconciliation process to move forward with those policy goals.

The Senate last week voted to approve its budget resolution after a marathon session of amendment voting. The House narrowly passed its own verison Tuesday.

GEO investments

Zoley said for the year, the company expects to invest roughly $38 million to renovate existing GEO facilities. He added that the company also plans to invest $16 million for additional GPS tracking devices for immigrants on the non-detained docket.

A non-detained docket is an alternative to detention and allows an immigrant to be electronically monitored while awaiting court proceedings.

The main ICE program that is an alternative to detention is known as the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or ISAP. There are about 184,000 people under ISAP, but Zoley told investors that the number of people in that program could easily double under the Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement within the country.

He said returning to levels of more than 300,000 people monitored under ISAP could bring in a revenue of around $250 million.

For fiscal year 2024, there are roughly 7.6 million people on the non-detained docket, according to ICE.

“Given the size of this population, our view is that in addition to increased detention capacity, the requirements of the federal immigration law in the Laken Riley Act will require significant ramp-up in the electronic monitoring to ensure proper tracking of persons on the non-detained docket and their compliance with the requirements of their immigration court proceedings,” Zoley said.

Last updated 12:54 p.m., Feb. 27, 2025

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