ICE, Profits and Immigrant Detention

Donald Trump's immigrant detention and deportation policies have poured billions of dollars to ICE and have increased the profits of for-profit private companies who are creating private prison and immigration detention centers.

According to the American Immigration Council, in July, the Senate passed a budget reconciliation bill that included $170 billion for immigration- and border enforcement-related funding (https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/congress-appro…)

This includes $45 billion for building new immigration detention centers, $29.9 billion toward ICE’s enforcement and deportation operations, and limiting the number of immigration judges to 800 despite record backlogs in the immigration court system.

Here is a youtube video on how I created this cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTbLGyhWn6s

REFERENCES
"Private Prison Companies’ Enormous Windfall: Who Stands to Gain as ICE Expands" by Lauren-Brook Eisen for The Brennan Center for Justice
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/private-prison-…

"Private prisons and local jails are ramping up as ICE detention exceeds capacity" by Meg Anderson for NPR
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/04/nx-s1-5417980/private-prisons-and-local-…

"Who profits from a $45 billion investment in immigrant detention?" by Elizabeth Trovall for Marketplace
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/08/18/who-profits-from-detaining…

"State and Local Contracts Prop Up For-Profit Prisons. CoreCivic and GEO Group profit from Trump’s immigration policies while also receiving lucrative contracts from state and local governments, including areas controlled by Democrats." by Matthew Cunningham-Cook for The American Prospect
https://prospect.org/2025/11/26/state-local-contracts-prop-up-for-profi…

"Financial Incentives. Financial incentives drive the continuation and expansion of our immigration detention system" by Detention Watch Network
https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/issues/financial-incentives