ICE’s Deportation Machine Runs on Private Security

Some of the world’s largest private security firms are making millions of dollars by aiding ICE with its mass deportations. Now the Trump administration’s record-breaking deportation spending blitz is poised to boost their profits even more.

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Private security firm G4S Secure Solutions provides vehicles and armed security guards to ICE. (Stan Grossfeld / the Boston Globe via Getty Images)


Some of the world’s largest private security firms are making millions by aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) mass deportations — and now that the Trump administration’s megabill has granted ICE a multibillion-dollar windfall, they are lining up for an even bigger cut.

That includes private equity–backed Allied Universal, the private security giant and the nation’s third-largest private employer, which provides vehicles and armed security guards to ICE through its subsidiary, G4S Secure Solutions.

Compared to other immigration detention vendors — like the private firms building and operating so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” President Donald Trump’s new Florida detention camp, which will cost an estimated $450 million a year — Allied Universal and the myriad security firms that provide “transportation” services and private security guards to ICE have faced less scrutiny.

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