A common shorthand holds that GEO Group simply "owns" most ICE detention facilities. The real structure is more layered than that — and understanding the layers matters, because it explains how a county government can end up functioning as a pass-through between ICE and a private operator, even at facilities most people would assume are run directly by the federal government. That layering sits underneath everything in who makes money when ICE detains someone and the company-by-company numbers in GEO isn't the only one: meet the companies behind ICE detention.
The Three Facility Types
Documented fact: ICE holds people across three main contractual facility categories: Contract Detention Facilities (CDFs), owned and operated by private companies under direct federal contracts subject to competitive federal procurement rules; Dedicated Intergovernmental Service Agreements (DIGSAs), facilities owned by a state or local government or a private company, operated exclusively for ICE detainees under an agreement with a local government entity; and Non-Dedicated IGSAs, which house ICE detainees alongside other populations, such as regular county jail inmates, in the same facility. Historically, most people in ICE custody have been held in county jails under these IGSA-type agreements rather than in CDFs directly.
Documented fact: The IGSA structure allows a local government holding the underlying agreement with ICE to itself subcontract the facility's day-to-day operation to a private company — meaning a facility can be technically "county-run" on paper while a private operator actually manages it. As of the end of fiscal year 2019, at least 31 of 108 IGSA facilities ICE was using were privately operated in exactly this pass-through arrangement. Critics, including the National Immigrant Justice Center, have specifically characterized this structure as a way for local governments to serve as intermediaries that can effectively route contracts to private companies outside standard federal competitive-bidding requirements.
Essex County Jail, Newark, NJ
A county-run facility — the kind of jail that can hold ICE detainees under an intergovernmental agreement, sometimes with a private operator running day-to-day operations underneath the county's name. Photo: public domain / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Current Scale
Documented fact: As of recent reporting, 91% of people in ICE detention are held in privately-operated facilities — a figure that includes both CDFs directly owned by companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic, and IGSA facilities where a private company operates under a local government's agreement with ICE. The total detained population reached 310,181 people over fiscal year 2025, with a single-day peak of more than 73,400 in mid-January 2026. By the end of November 2025, ICE was using 104 more individual facilities than it had at the start of the year — roughly a 91% increase in the total number of facilities in use.
Kit Carson Correctional Center, Burlington, CO
A directly private-owned and operated facility — the CDF model, as distinct from the county-jail arrangement pictured above. Photo: public domain / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
What This Corrects
Interpretation: "GEO Group owns most ICE facilities" isn't quite the right frame — the more accurate statement is that the private detention industry, operating through several different contractual structures (some direct, some routed through county governments), holds the overwhelming majority of the detained population. GEO Group and CoreCivic are the two largest players in that industry, but the mechanism by which they operate a given facility varies, and county governments are often financially and administratively involved even at facilities the public generally thinks of as "private prisons." This is also the structure behind how people move between facilities in the first place — see the ICE transportation business: who makes money moving detainees?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does a county profit when it subcontracts a facility to a private operator?
Some IGSA arrangements do involve a per-diem payment to the county itself, in addition to whatever the county pays the private operator, though the specific financial terms vary by agreement and weren't uniformly documented in the sourcing for this piece. That per-diem-to-the-county structure means a local government can have its own direct financial stake in maintaining or expanding the arrangement, separate from whatever the private operator earns underneath it.
Are CDFs subject to more oversight than IGSA facilities?
CDFs go through federal procurement processes with associated requirements; IGSA facilities' oversight can vary depending on the specific agreement, which is part of what critics have flagged as a transparency concern with the IGSA structure generally.
Is the 91% figure specific to a single date?
It's drawn from recent reporting during the current detention expansion; as detention capacity continues to change, as documented throughout this cluster, that specific percentage could shift over time. The underlying structural pattern — the overwhelming majority of capacity running through some private-operator arrangement — has held steady even as the exact percentage and total bed count have moved.
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Related Reading
GEO Isn't the Only One: Meet the Companies Behind ICE Detention: the two biggest CDF operators, compared directly.
Guaranteed Beds: Does ICE Pay Even When Detention Centers Aren't Full?: the contract clauses that apply across both facility types.
"Private Companies Don't Really Profit From Immigration Enforcement.": hard to square with 91% of detention running through private operators.
Sources: U.S. GAO, "Immigration Detention: Actions Needed to Improve Planning, Documentation, and Oversight of Detention Facility Contracts," GAO-21-149; National Immigrant Justice Center, "Cut the Contracts: It's Time to End ICE's Corrupt Detention Management System"; American Immigration Council, "New Report Details ICE's Expanding and Increasingly Unaccountable Detention System"; Vera Institute of Justice, "ICE Detention Trends" dashboard, through Mar. 2026.
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