On CoreCivic’s second quarterly earnings call, the private prison company’s CEO told participants that they’re in an “unprecedented environment” due to the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
“Our business is perfectly aligned with the demands of this moment,” said CoreCivic CEO Damon T. Hininger. “We are in an unprecedented environment with rapid increases in federal detention populations nationwide and a continuing need for solutions.”
Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda has given the private prison industry much to celebrate. During the second quarter of 2025, CoreCivic’s revenue from its contracts with ICE rose about 17 percent from last year’s second quarter, from $151 million to over $176 million. The company’s net income for the second quarter was over $38 million, an increase of more than 100 percent from last year.
“Nationwide ICE detention populations were 57,861, the highest detention populations ever recorded by ICE, which has been our largest customer for over 10 years,” Hininger said. “We know the demand from ICE will increase.”
The company says it expects the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act to bring in even more business. The legislation provides U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with $45 billion for building new immigration jails, including lock-ups to detain families.
“Congress reached final resolution on federal funding for border security through the ‘One Big Beautiful Act’ that is historically unmatched,” Hininger told participants, adding that the legislation is “a pivotal moment for funding related to our industry.”
“The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has changed dramatically the activity of ICE and securing bed capacity,” he went on.
ICE’s campaign to hire 10,000 employees is “very important for two reasons,” Hininger said. “One, it is another sign of the intensity of ICE behavior with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Two, this increase in law enforcement personnel will obviously raise the level of individuals arrested and the requirement for detention capacity.”
Many human rights advocates have warned that the legislation would be a financial boon to the private prison industry, which, as the Brennan Center for Justice pointed out, includes “significant financial supporters of GOP candidates for Congress as well as the president’s election campaign.” In 2024, Hininger donated more than $300,000 to Trump and the Republican National Committee, according to Truthout’s analysis of Open Secrets’ data.
CoreCivic has been repeatedly accused of operating inhumane and dangerous lock-ups. A bombshell investigation by The Guardian revealed that the FBI is investigating an alleged drug smuggling ring at CoreCivic’s Cibola County Correctional Center (CCCC) in New Mexico. People in ICE custody make up about 30 percent of the lock-up’s population. An investigation by The Guardian also revealed that at least 15 people detained at the facility died “prematurely.”
One person detained at CCCC told The Guardian that he and a friend were threatened by another detainee when they were accidentally given an envelope that contained “strips of paper” that were likely Suboxone.
“He told us, ‘This paper is mine,’” the man recounted to The Guardian. “He then said, ‘I’ll give each of you $500. Accept it, or I’ll kill you.’”
Just days before CoreCivic’s earnings call, the mother of a man incarcerated at CoreCivic’s South Central Correctional Facility in Tennessee sued the company, alleging that they failed to protect her son who was killed by another detainee the day before he was scheduled to go home. In April, a jury awarded a man over $27 million after he was severely beaten by another incarcerated person while imprisoned at CoreCivic’s Crossroads Correctional Center, also in Tennessee.
The FBI investigation and deaths were not mentioned on CoreCivic’s earnings call, which focused on celebrating the company’s growing opportunities to lock up record numbers of people.
“We have had a tremendous, tremendous first half of 2025 as you see from the financial performance,” Hininger said in his closing remarks. “We’re going to have a very strong year as we end 2025 and going into 2026.”
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