For Some Companies, Influx Of Migrant Children Is Booming Business

By Mica Rosenberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) – For a handful of U.S. companies that have exclusive or longstanding contracts with federal agencies dealing with illegal immigrants, the recent wave of children crossing the southern border with Mexico is a business opportunity.

Private prison companies Geo Group and competitor Corrections Corporation of America, for example, stand to gain if Congress approves any emergency funding for family detention facilities. The two companies have thousands of unoccupied beds in their prisons and jails that potentially could be modified to house immigrant families.

In the past six years, Geo Group was awarded nearly $880 million from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to government contracting data compiled by SmartProcure.us. In July, ICE, the agency responsible for immigration detention, modified its contract with Geo Group to convert the company’s adult detention center in Karnes County, Texas to house families.

The biggest potential windfall would come if Congress approves a White House request for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to address the crisis. But such a large package seems unlikely to make it through a deeply divided Congress and a resolution looks difficult before lawmakers’ leave for their summer recess.

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