INSTITUTE INDEX: A private prison firm's pay-to-play immigrant detention contract

By Sue Sturgis / April 20, 2017

Based in Boca Raton, Florida, The GEO Group recently landed a multimillion-dollar federal contract to build an immigrant detention center in Texas. The award came after a subsidiary of the company contributed $225,000 to a super PAC affiliated with President Trump, raising charges of pay-to-play politics. (Photo of The GEO Group's headquarters by Eflatmajor7th via Wikipedia.)

Rank of the new immigrant detention center being planned for the Texas community of Conroe among the first such facilities to be built under the Trump administration: 1

Size of the contract awarded to The GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company, to build the 1,000-bed facility: $110 million

Number of beds in another immigrant detention center already operated by The GEO Group in the same community: 1,517

Number of years that federal contractors have been barred from contributing to federal candidates to avoid the appearance or reality that taxpayer-funded contracts are for sale: more than 75

In 2016, amount a GEO Group subsidiary contributed to the Rebuilding America Now super PAC that worked to elect President Trump: $225,000

Number of days after the Obama Justice Department announced it was phasing out the use of privately run federal prisons that the company made its first donation to the pro-Trump super PAC: 1

Amount the company also contributed that year to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC associated with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): $200,000

Amount it contributed in 2015 to a super PAC supporting U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Florida) presidential bid: $100,000

Month in which the watchdog Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that The GEO Group's contributions to the Trump super PAC violated the contractor donation ban, with the company arguing they were legal since the subsidiary made them: 11/2016

Portion of The GEO Group's corporate staff employed by the subsidiary, which also shares the parent company's address: all

Month in which the CLC filed a similar complaint against Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that supported Hillary Clinton, for accepting a $200,000 contribution from another federal contractor, Suffolk Construction: 7/2016

The GEO Group's reported revenue in 2016: $2.1 billion

Increase that represented over 2015: $300 million

Percent of GEO Group's annual revenue that comes from federal contracts: 45

Year in which the new detention center in Conroe is expected to be completed: 2018

(Click on figure to go to source.)

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