Readout of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement meeting with private detention contractors

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership met with two of its private detention contractors today. CoreCivic and the GEO Group, Inc. each met with agency leadership as part of ongoing conversations between the government and the private sector. These engagements are essential to ensuring collective understanding of changing mission requirements and the shared responsibility of appropriate care for those in custody. The use of private detention contractors is a vital piece of the national detention system enabling ICE to execute its mission. CoreCivic and the GEO Group, Inc continue to be valued partners in the immigration detention space.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continually adjusts its national detention system based on operational needs. The ability for the agency to remove individuals to their home countries, detain those who are mandatory detention and are a public safety threat is directly dependent on location and availability of detention space. ICE continues to modernize the immigration system and realize cost efficiencies across the operational landscape while continuing to work with DHS leadership and Congress to secure supplemental funding for detention. Immigration detention is not punitive. Immigration detention authority is based in the furtherance of a noncitizens’ immigration proceedings and, if ordered by the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review, removal from the United States.