From The Establishment Bar Blog:

The Human Currency of ICE and Private Prison Corporations
Posted by T.LaFauci May 12, 2025

It all makes sense once you connect the dots.

Throughout Donald Trump’s first 100 days, there has been a large push to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to round up as many “violent” undocumented immigrants as possible. Based on a longstanding campaign promise by Donald Trump and falling in line with the racist and xenophobic views of Stephen Miller, the current regime has been nothing but open in its desire to remove as many individuals as possible in the name of national security. Crying wolf about “open borders” has been a longstanding GOP rallying cry. As the party soaked in nativism, it has to present immigrants as dangerous and destructive. The more they can have ICE visible in the community, arresting black and brown community members, the more they can puff out their chests and claim to be the party of national security.

But here’s the thing.

It’s more than a simple political strategy to cater to their shrinking xenophobic base. While it is undoubtedly part of the reason, something larger is at play here. And what’s at play is nothing new. In fact, it is essentially the foundation of the modern American conservative party. Yes, they are nativist. Yes, they are racist. Yes, they are xenophobic. Yet at the core of everything, the GOP is opportunistic. They want to secure their own personal wealth and financial well-being. The party of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” does everything in its power to skirt the rules. To abuse the system. To take advantage of every single loophole. At its core, the Republican Party is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme dedicated to enriching itself at the expense of the American people. When you think in these terms, when you realize that everything the GOP does is to enrich those at the top, then you finally begin to see a pattern that is impossible to ignore.

Let’s revisit ICE for a moment. The department’s objective is to keep our borders safe. It is a federal agency that has jurisdiction 100 miles from any land and maritime border. But it can also operate beyond that jurisdiction if given authority by local municipalities. Take Nashville, Tennessee, for example. This past week, the Tennessee Highway Patrol coordinated a series of stops with ICE to find undocumented immigrants along state roads. These stops resulted in the arrests of 12 individuals, with an additional 94 people being detained for reasons related to immigration. Nashville’s Democratic mayor has publicly objected to the stops and has questioned how and why the Highway Patrol came to work with ICE in the first place. Knowing that Tennessee is a red, non-border state, it would seem an odd choice to divert ICE manpower and resources there at a time when the Trump Administration loves targeting blue states, especially those with sanctuary laws and policies. What is it about Tennessee, and Nashville specifically, that makes it a priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement?

The answer: Private prison company CoreCivic.

One of the dirtiest secrets in American immigration is that while ICE is a federal government agency, the prisons to which it sends most of its detainees are not. In fact, where it sends its detainees is often to private prison companies that have a self-interest in having as many inmates as possible. More inmates mean more funding. More funding means expansion. Expansion shows stability and growth. And stability and growth mean extra money in the pockets of the key investors of these private prison companies, who are accountable to their stockholders and board members.

Let’s return to Nashville, the site of private prison company CoreCivic. CoreCivic is the second-largest private prison company in the United States. It has over 70 sites in 21 states, including 4 in Tennessee alone. It has a market capitalization of $2.4 billion. Between Election Day and the announcement of Tom Homan to oversee border control, the company’s stock rose 81%, representing a clear relationship between the political party in charge and the private prison industrial complex. Knowing that a surging prison population was good for business, CoreCivic has been pushing the envelope for years at its Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility in Nashville and was actually investigated for civil rights violations in 2024. From The Tennessee Lookout:

Read the rest of this post at the link above.