Private Prison Giant to Ramp Up Production of Ankle Monitors After ICE Announced Plan to Shackle 180,000 Immigrants: Report

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has instructed staff to significantly expand the use of GPS-enabled ankle monitors on migrants, a move with which prison contractor Geo Group, whose subsidiary BI Inc. operates the program, stands to profit considerably.

BI Inc., which began in the 1970s making tracking devices for livestock, now runs the entirety of ICE's immigrant-monitoring program. A one-year extension on BI's contract was recently granted without a competitive bidding process, cementing its position.

The agency's new directive could result in more than 180,000 immigrants under ICE's Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program being outfitted with tracking devices. Currently, just over 24,000 wear ankle monitors.

Each ATD participant generates approximately $3.70 in daily revenue, which could mean hundreds of millions in additional income for BI and its parent, Geo Group, if ankle monitoring expands as planned.

David Donahue, Geo's CEO, told investors in May the company is "very well positioned" to meet this opportunity and has ramped up production accordingly, preparing to potentially track millions of immigrants, as The Washington Post explains.

According to a June 9 memo reviewed by The Post, ICE directed staff to escalate individuals to ankle monitors "whenever possible." Exceptions would include pregnant women, who may be assigned wrist-worn devices instead. "If the alien is not being arrested at the time of reporting, escalate their supervision level to GPS ankle monitors," wrote Dawnisha M. Helland, acting assistant director overseeing non-detained immigrants.

Geo Group, the largest private prison operator in the U.S., has become a central player in the federal government's immigrant surveillance program through a range of digital tools that include facial recognition apps and smartwatches. A sprawling New York Times report published in April revealed how the company's technology is instrumental in tracking the daily movements of immigrants facing deportation.

At the time, NYT also found that the company received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts to manage ATD, with more than 300,000 immigrants being enrolled in the program which costs the government roughly $4.20 per person per day—far less than the $150 daily cost of traditional detention.

Geo Group has longstanding ties to the Trump administration, including donating over $1.5 million to Trump's campaign and inaugural committee, as The Washington Post points out. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, has ties with the company and even received more than $5,000 in consulting fees from GEO Care, a division of GEO Group, according to a federal ethics filing in May.