The Border Grift

The border crisis is fake. The profits are real. And the incarceration economy is open for business.

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Don’t believe the border crisis crap. It’s a business model, pure and simple.

Let’s get real: Trump’s immigration crackdown has nothing to do with safety, law, or order—and everything to do with profit.

The so-called “border crisis” he keeps shouting about? It’s largely fiction at this point. Border crossings did peak under Biden—caused by a combination of COVID-era border bans under Trump’s first administration and climate change-based emergencies in the Northern Triangle. Under Biden, border crossings plummeted to historic lows by the end of his term—down over 90% from their peak in late 2023. And he did it without Republican support—remember, Trump blocked bipartisan reform to “save immigration” for his campaign.

In May 2025, just 8,700 people crossed the southern border, compared to over 200,000 during the height of the surge a year earlier. That’s the opposite of a surge.

For further perspective: Obama, often credited with the tightest border numbers in modern times, still averaged over 29,000 crossings per month during his second term. Biden brought the numbers even lower—and Trump is now pretending there’s still a crisis in order to militarize ICE and hand out billion-dollar contracts.

Trump’s administration is in the middle of a massive expansion of the immigrant detention system. In addition to outsourcing incarceration to El Salvador, they’re reopening shuttered prisons across the country. Signing no-bid emergency contracts worth hundreds of millions.

So what is really going on? Why all the urgency when there’s no emergency? Bigotry is certainly at the top of the list. But it’s not the only thing leading this charge. As with all things Trump, money is involved.

So let’s follow it.

At the heart of this immigrant-nabbing policy are two companies: GEO Group and CoreCivic. These are the private prison corporations running many of the detention centers inside the U.S., and making moves toward international expansion. They’ve been profiting off immigrant detention for decades. They made a killing under Bush. They raked it in under Obama. Biden promised to shut them down, and did partially by stopping privatized detention facilities for use by the DOJ, but not for ICE. Then Trump pounced and turned the faucet wide open, with both companies expecting rapid growth under the Trump administration.

Here’s the kicker: these companies get paid per person, per day. Every time someone is arrested by ICE, every time an asylum seeker is held for “processing,” every time a family is kept in limbo—they profit. Every delay in court proceedings is extra money. Every lost file, every denied release, every “administrative backlog” is revenue.

And these companies have done everything in their power to keep it that way.

GEO Group and CoreCivic have spent millions lobbying Congress and federal agencies. They’ve donated over $1 million to Trump-aligned PACs and candidates. Their executives have revolved in and out of government roles, writing the very policies they later profit from. Trump’s own former border czar, Tom Homan, received consulting fees from GEO Group before taking office—then helped them land ICE contracts worth $130 million a year.

This setup creates three deadly incentives:

1. More detention beds (even when crossings are low)

2. Fewer releases (even when people qualify)

3. More chaos (because disorder justifies expansion)

And that’s exactly what we’ve seen.

These detention centers aren’t just unnecessary—they’re dangerous. Conditions are well-documented: abuse, neglect, sexual assault, forced medical procedures, and deaths in custody. Unlike public facilities, these private centers operate with far less oversight, shielded from FOIA laws and backed by expensive legal teams. The less you know about what happens inside, the better it is for business.

And while the detention industry cashes in, children are literally being denied water and cancer treatment. At the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, operated by CoreCivic, new reports show families fighting each other over clean water. Kids are getting sick from drinking formula tap water. One child missed his cancer treatments, relapsed in custody, and was denied urgent care. Another couldn’t walk due to swollen feet—ICE ignored it. Over 40 families reported medical neglect. This isn’t old news—it’s happening right now.

And just as these horrors came to light, Trump’s administration is pushing to gut the Flores Settlement, which protects kids in federal custody, and replace it with permanent detention and $45 billion in ICE funding. Translation? More cages. Less oversight. And no one is accountable when a kid gets sick and dies in the dark.

And let’s be clear: most of the people locked up are not criminals. They’re asylum seekers, green card holders with minor offenses, families with children, and individuals who’ve already been cleared for release but remain detained because ICE “can’t find a sponsor.” Some are held for months—others, years—because there’s no money in letting them go.

So why are we still expanding detention if the surge is over?
Why are we building new cages at home and contracting foreign prisons abroad?
Why is ICE getting emergency powers in the absence of an emergency?

Because this isn’t about need.
It’s about greed.

Trump has said the quiet part out loud—caught on a hot mic telling El Salvador’s president: “The home-growns are next… You gotta build about five more places.” Kristi Noem called for indefinite offshore detention. Stephen Miller suggested suspending habeas corpus.

This regime sees an opportunity to get rid of every person they deem unworthy of living in their vision of a utopian society combined with slick backroom deals and campaign donations. It’s as simple as that.

A fully privatized incarceration economy built on racism, fear, and corporate kickbacks.
And unless the current regime is stopped, it won’t stop at immigrants.

Keep resisting guys,

Rosie

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I’m a journalist and novelist whose career was upended by long COVID—years of neurological and physical damage that still keep me in recovery mode most days and prompted an urgent move to lower elevation. But the state of this country lit a fire I couldn’t ignore. So I write when I can, from the margins of exhaustion, because staying silent isn't an option.

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