The Trump administration’s warehouse buying spree is drawing interest from one of the largest private prison contractors, although a top executive acknowledged Thursday that retrofitting the facilities to detain immigrants will be a challenge.
Geo Group is “cautiously participating” in the procurement process for running the warehouses and evaluating select sites, the company’s executive chair, George Zoley, told investors during an earnings call. The Department of Homeland Security wants to hold as many as 8,500 people in some of the several warehouses it has purchased in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas.
Geo Group is one of the two biggest companies in the detention business: Roughly 34% of the people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody are detained at Geo Group’s centers. The Florida-based company says it has space for 6,000 more detainees at its own facilities.
But operating a massive warehouse detention facility would be complicated, Zoley said. Geo Group’s only experience in renovating a warehouse for detention purposes was 30 years ago, he said.
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“As far as the physical plant renovations of a warehouse to get it operational, it’s complicated, and then the operational implications of how you manage such a facility, particularly a large-scale facility, is going to be concerning,” Zoley said.
The Trump administration’s push for warehouses drove the interest of investors during the fourth quarter earnings call, with Zoley saying the company wanted to play a role in the new initiative, which has garnered bipartisan backlash in rural towns that in some cases have populations lower than the number of people ICE wants to detain.
The company is focused on potential operation of warehouses in the Sun Belt and Republican states.
“It’s very complicated to find locations in areas that are suitable to their needs, and you would meet with the last political resistance,” Zoley said.
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker said in a post on X last week that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had agreed to back off from purchasing a warehouse in Byhalia, Mississippi, after he raised concerns about the town’s sewer, water, energy and emergency services handling of the planned 8,500-bed detention center.
“I relayed to her the opposition of local elected and zoning officials as well as economic development concerns,” Wicker said in the statement. “I appreciate her for agreeing to look elsewhere.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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