Not everyone in this system is behind a fence. ICE's Alternatives to Detention program monitors people living in the community while their cases proceed — and it's a real, growing, separately contracted business, largely run by a single company that's been GEO Group's subsidiary since 2004. It's the piece of the money map from who makes money when ICE detains someone that never shows up as a bed count, and it belongs right alongside the ICE transportation business as one of the least-visible profit centers in the system.
One Contractor, Two Decades
Documented fact: BI Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of GEO Group, has held ICE's primary contract for the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) — the main Alternatives to Detention subprogram — since 2004, giving it what reporting has characterized as a functional monopoly over ICE's community-monitoring tools: GPS ankle and wrist monitors, biometric facial-recognition check-in apps, and telephonic reporting systems. ICE awarded BI the current five-year contract, ISAP V, on September 30, 2025, with an initial award value of approximately $1.017 billion and a contract ceiling just above $1.02 billion; $228.5 million had been obligated under it as of the reporting available to us, per GovConWire.
GPS ankle monitor
The device tens of thousands of people on ICE's Alternatives to Detention program now wear, monitored under GEO subsidiary BI Incorporated's contract. Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Scale of Enrollment
Documented fact: GEO told investors approximately 184,000 people were enrolled in ISAP, with about 54,000 of them wearing GPS ankle monitors — up sharply from roughly 17,000 people on ankle monitors in early 2025. Separate reporting, including from American Immigration Council, found Alternatives to Detention program funding reached $470 million in fiscal year 2024, up from $443 million the year before — funding levels from before the new $1 billion-plus ISAP V contract took effect, illustrating how much the program's committed scale has grown since. Reporting from CyberScoop and Biometric Update has documented the expanding biometric and monitoring tools involved.
GEO Group Headquarters, Boca Raton, FL
BI Incorporated's parent company — profiled in full in GEO Group and ICE: how immigration detention became a billion-dollar customer. Photo: Eflatmajor7th, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
"Angry Grandma" Middle Finger FDT Pack Sticker
A GPS monitor is still a form of custody, just an invisible one, billed at a $1 billion contract rate to the same parent company that runs the detention side. This pack says what a lot of people feel about that.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is electronic monitoring less restrictive than detention?
It allows people to live in the community rather than in a facility, which is a real and meaningful difference; whether the specific monitoring conditions (GPS tracking, biometric check-ins, curfews in some cases) are experienced as minimally restrictive or highly intrusive is a matter of ongoing public debate this piece doesn't resolve.
Does BI Incorporated compete for this contract against other companies?
BI has held the primary ISAP contract continuously since 2004, per the reporting we reviewed; we did not find documentation of a competing company holding this specific contract during that period. That kind of multi-decade continuity with a single vendor is unusual for a federal contract of this size and is itself worth noting, independent of any judgment about the company's performance.
Is $1 billion the total cost, or just the contract ceiling?
It's the contract's award/ceiling value — the maximum authorized spending over the contract's term — not necessarily the amount that will ultimately be spent, similar to the ceiling-versus-obligated distinction covered in our piece on the ICE transportation business.
"Keeping Stolen Land 'Pure' Since 2003" (Border Map) Sticker
54,000 people on ankle monitors is a business line, not an afterthought — a fitting reminder on anything that leaves the house.
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Related Reading
GEO Group and ICE: How Immigration Detention Became a Billion-Dollar Customer: the parent company behind BI Incorporated's ISAP contract.
The ICE Transportation Business: Who Makes Money Moving Detainees?: the physical-movement counterpart to this monitoring business.
"Private Companies Don't Really Profit From Immigration Enforcement.": a $1 billion monitoring contract for a company that isn't even running a facility says otherwise.
Sources: Documented NY, "The $470 Million Surveillance Program Watching Immigrants Across the U.S.," Oct. 2025; GovConWire, "BI Secures ICE ISAP V IDIQ Contract"; CyberScoop, "How a private company helps ICE track migrants' every move"; Biometric Update, reporting on GEO Group's ankle-monitor and biometric monitoring contract expansion, 2025–2026.
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