Wherever one stands on the issue of wide-scale detention and deportation of immigrants, it’s useful to see who profits and who, besides immigrants, gets hurt. For example, Knox County jails
housed 3,500 ICE detainees in 2025. Through “force multiplier” programs like 287(g), limited local law enforcement resources in East Tennessee are diverted to processing, housing and transporting those detained by ICE operations.Nationally, ICE appropriations in 2025 were $10 billion, a 400% increase since 2003 - money that could have gone to schools, public health and social services, infrastructure or paying down the national debt.
In 2025, $45 billion in tax money went to detention centers alone, with a paltry $800 million to court systems. Clearly, it’s
more lucrative to detain people than to identify the mere 3-5% with felony convictions and release those with legitimate claims to residency.
Two corporations, the GEO Group and CoreCivic, run the vast majority of private prisons, which massively profit from the detention system. GEO, with $2 billion in ICE contracts, has seen a 700% surge in profits over 2024. Former GEO executive David Venturella is now acting head of ICE. CoreCivic’s ICE-sourced revenue has doubled. Both companies consistently max out contributions to ICE-favorable campaigns. Brokers for Donald Trump made 29 trades to private prison corporations in his second term.
One wonders if “protecting our borders” is the real issue when so few profit so hugely and national policy is so forceably skewed by financial interest.
Pamela Schoenewaldt, Knoxville, 37919
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Follow the ICE money train | Letter
