Incoming President Trump’s vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants when he starts his term has sent private prison stocks soaring. Immigrant rights advocates, including our guest, the executive director of Detention Watch Network, Silky Shah, are preparing for the Trump administration’s threats of mass deportation, a central tenet of his presidential campaign. “The first Trump campaign was defined by the border wall, and this one is really defined by mass deportations,” says Shah. If the Biden administration wants to protect immigrants’ rights before Trump takes office, she adds, it must begin reducing detention capacity by “shutting down facilities now.”
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.
Incoming President Trump’s vow to deport millions of immigrants when he starts his term has sent private prison stocks soaring. In an earnings call with investors Thursday, GEO Group CEO Brian Robert Evans and Chairperson George Zoley hailed what they called an “unprecedented opportunity.”
GEOGE ZOLEY: We expect the incoming Trump administration to take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security, as well as interior enforcement, and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals. We stand ready to provide additional services and resources to help ICE meet its future needs.
BRIAN VIOLINO: Great. And then, you know, there was some additional talk about the air services contract. I think that’s $25 million in annualized revenue. You know, I think we have a pretty good idea of the potential size of the detention [inaudible] program in a new administration, but could you help us try to size this air services opportunity? And then, what kind of margins do you generate in that business?
BRIAN ROBERT EVANS: You know, I think, to speak in generalities, we’re looking at a theoretical potential doubling of all of our services, whether it’s in the detention segment, in the transportation segment, as well as the ISAP program. Of course, this will depend on Congress providing the required funding.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on how both the private prison corporations and immigrant rights advocates are preparing for the incoming Trump administration, we’re joined by Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, author of Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition. Her new article for Truthout is headlined “Trump 2.0 Poses an Even Bigger Threat to Migrants. Here’s How We Fight Back.”
Silky, welcome back to Democracy Now! So, earlier, we played the clip of Stephen Miller, one of the top people to be in charge of what Trump is calling the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. He says, “Seal the borders.” He says, “Detain people” — they’re talking about on military bases and building other detention sites — “and then fly them out.” And we’re hearing from GEO Group right now. Put this all together.
SILKY SHAH: Yeah, I mean, I think what we’ve heard — and thank you so much for having me. What we’ve heard so much over the last year and since Project 2025 came out, and, you know, in so many ways, the........