ICE-Cold Cash: Private Prison Companies owns US Congress

[Opinion. Not all AN readers are Americans (thank the Goddess!).

But we all should know how politicians are manipulated by corporations predicated on evil motives.]

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg and Ethan Corey

The Appeal: 04 February 4, 2026

Leading for-profit prison companies donated about half a million dollars to Republican members of Congress currently in office, and $57,000 to Democratic congressmembers, from 2021 through 2025, according to an investigation by The Appeal.

Executives at these firms have also donated millions of dollars to candidates, political parties, and political action committees (PACs).

More than 70,000 people are currently being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the majority of them are incarcerated in private prisons. Of the 38 people who died while in ICE custody, from 2025 through Feb. 1, 71 percent were held in for-profit facilities, according to data collected by lawyer and journalist Andrew Free.

Contracts with ICE “incentivise the incarceration of immigrants as a money-making scheme,” Stacy Suh, the Program Director at Detention Watch Network, told The Appeal.

“Perverse financial incentives are a bedrock of incarceration,” Suh said. “As long as detention exists, profiteering will exist — whether it’s a local elected official or a local government with a shrinking budget or by a corporation.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/ice-immigration-customs-enforcement-private-prisons-geo-group-corecivic