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Following his arrival in the United States in 2022, a Honduran migrant was mandated by authorities to utilize a government-provided application, a component of an immigration surveillance program. This case highlights the expanding role of tracking technology in immigration enforcement and the business of immigrant monitoring.
The Honduran national, a former law enforcement official residing in Louisiana, was required to use the facial-recognition app at least once per week. This involved capturing a selfie to verify his identity and location. In exchange for relinquishing some personal privacy, he was able to avoid detention and secure authorization to work.
However, in February, he was instructed to report to an immigration office for an update to the tracking technology. Upon arrival, he was met by federal agents who apprehended and transported him to a detention facility. He remains there, according to his wife and Jacinta González, programs director for the advocacy organization MediaJustice, who is assisting the detained individual. Both he and his wife have requested anonymity due to concerns about impacting his legal proceedings.
SmartLink, the app he utilized, is a product of the Geo Group, the nation’s largest private prison corporation. Over the past decade, Geo Group has cultivated a profitable auxiliary business in digital surveillance tools. These include ankle monitors, smartwatches, and tracking apps employed to monitor immigrants on behalf of the federal government.
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These technological products are currently bolstering President Trump’s deportation initiatives. They furnish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the locations of undocumented immigrants, according to legal aid groups and immigration organizations. While official figures on arrests resulting from the digital monitoring program are undisclosed, legal aid groups estimate the number to be at least in the hundreds. The Department of Homeland Security reported over 30,000 immigrants were arrested in Mr. Trump’s initial 50 days in office.
“These are precisely the individuals being monitored,” stated Laura Rodriguez, an attorney with the American Friends Service Committee, a New Jersey-based legal aid organization with several clients in the monitoring program who have been detained. “They represent easy targets.”
Geo Group’s involvement with this technology has positioned the company as a significant beneficiary of the Trump administration’s policies. Even as Mr. Trump implements budget reductions across federal agencies, his administration has awarded Geo Group new federal contracts to house undocumented immigrants. Furthermore, DHS is considering renewing a long-standing contract with the company, valued at approximately $350 million in the previous year, to track the roughly 180,000 individuals currently enrolled in the surveillance program.
Republican legislators and administration advisors have also advocated for increased immigrant surveillance. Their proposals encompass expanded location tracking and stricter enforcement of curfews.
Mr. Trump’s immigration policies have propelled Geo Group’s stock price upwards and sustained its value amidst stock market fluctuations. Although digital monitoring constitutes only about 14 percent of its $2.4 billion annual revenue, the Florida-based company has indicated that its immigrant surveillance sector could more than double. Profit margins for the monitoring business are approximately 50 percent.
“Geo Group was established for this unique period in our nation’s history and the ensuing opportunities,” George Zoley, the company’s founder, remarked on an investor call shortly after Mr. Trump’s election.
The tracking program managed by Geo Group, known as Alternatives to Detention, is designed to oversee undocumented immigrants facing potential deportation. Instead of confinement in detention centers or release without oversight, immigrants are equipped with location tracking devices. They must promptly respond to alerts dispatched to these devices to confirm their location, or face potential penalties.
This program underscores technology’s increasing significance in border security. The demand for robust digital tools is creating lucrative opportunities for private industries while simultaneously increasing governmental authority. Companies including Palantir, Anduril, and Cellebrite have also benefited from this surge, securing government contracts.
While proponents commend the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of Geo Group’s tools, critics caution that the utilization of this technology could intensify surveillance within immigrant communities.
Noor Zafar, a senior lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, stated, “The government presents it as an alternative to detention, but we perceive it as an expansion of detention.”
Concurrently, Geo Group’s products have been plagued by glitches and high costs, according to over a dozen current and former employees, government officials, and a review of the company’s federal contract and related documents.
Each instance an immigrant transmits a selfie via the company’s SmartLink app for check-in, which can occur millions of times annually, the federal government remits roughly $1, as per sections of Geo Group’s government contract obtained by The New York Times. For immigrants wearing the VeriWatch smartwatch, the company charges $3 daily. If a watch is misplaced, Geo Group invoices the government $380, exceeding the cost of an Apple Watch SE.
ICE issued a statement asserting that the monitoring program “effectively enhances court appearance rates and compliance with release conditions.” The White House did not provide comments on this issue.
Efforts to modify the program and open the contract to competitive bidding have been obstructed by Geo Group’s lobbying efforts and connections within Capitol Hill and ICE. This is according to senior DHS officials and congressional staff members. Some former senior ICE employees have subsequently taken positions at Geo Group.
Geo Group directed inquiries regarding the Trump administration’s utilization of its monitoring technology to ICE. In a statement, Geo Group asserted it has “never advocated for or against, nor have we ever played a role in setting immigration enforcement policies.” The company added that its services are “closely monitored in accordance with strict government contract standards.”
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From Prisons to Surveillance
Mr. Zoley, whose family relocated to the United States from Greece during his childhood, established Geo Group in 1984 as a division of a security guard enterprise. As the prison population surged in the 1980s, the company expanded into managing private prisons. Currently, it operates approximately 100 facilities.
In 1986, Geo Group secured an ICE contract to construct an immigrant processing center in Aurora, Colorado, with a capacity of 150 individuals. By the 2000s, immigration had become a substantial business sector, its prominence fluctuating based on presidential administrations and Congressional control.
To diversify its operations, Geo Group transitioned into digital surveillance. In 2011, the company acquired Behavioral Interventions for $415 million. This Colorado-based firm, established in the 1970s for tracking livestock, had expanded into parolee monitoring. Behavioral Interventions held an exclusive contract with ICE for the digital monitoring of thousands of newly arrived immigrants.
Mr. Zoley characterized the acquisition as “transformative.” His assessment proved accurate as the government invested hundreds of millions of dollars in remote surveillance of immigrants over the ensuing decade, particularly during the Biden administration.
The underlying rationale was that remote surveillance of immigrants undergoing removal proceedings would alleviate strain on overcrowded detention centers, lighten the workload for ICE officers, and generate cost savings. Digitally monitoring an immigrant amounts to roughly $4.20 per day, compared to approximately $150 daily in a detention center, according to ICE figures.
Deborah Fleischaker, ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration, stated, “The program is intended to ensure we know the identities of these individuals and that they are under an appropriate level of supervision.”
By 2022, over 300,000 immigrants were enrolled in the program. Geo Group’s sales experienced a surge, although revenue declined in 2023.
Jason Morín, a political science professor at California State University, Northridge, who studies Geo Group, noted the company lobbied to broaden surveillance. In the lead-up to the 2024 election, a Geo Group subsidiary contributed over $2 million in campaign donations to Republican candidates, with the majority directed toward groups supporting Mr. Trump and congressional candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Wall Street analysts included Geo Group, which employs approximately 18,000 individuals, in lists of stocks projected to perform well if Mr. Trump were elected. With limited competition, some analysts projected the company’s digital monitoring business would generate nearly $700 million in cumulative revenue through 2026. Geo Group’s largest shareholders include BlackRock and Vanguard.
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Living in a Radius
For numerous undocumented immigrants who are not detained at the border, the perilous journey to the United States culminates within Geo Group’s surveillance system.
After surrendering to immigration officers, they are fitted with an ankle bracelet, smartwatch, or smartphone equipped with the company’s monitoring app. Instead of direct oversight by ICE officers, they are monitored by Geo Group case specialists.
Under this program, immigrants experience greater freedom within the United States while undergoing a legal process that can extend for years. The tradeoff involves continuous monitoring. According to a Times analysis of its code, Geo Group’s app is authorized to persistently track a user’s location.
A Geo Group case worker in the Northeast, who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal, described using software similar to Google Maps to monitor immigrants’ locations. If immigrants were not at home or misrepresented their location during a check-in, they received a strike. Accumulating three strikes prompted the case specialist to notify an ICE agent, potentially leading to increased monitoring, detention, or expedited deportation.
Geo Group employees at field offices spanning from Massachusetts to Alabama reported frequent challenges in simultaneously monitoring up to 300 immigrants. The Northeast case worker recalled being tasked with conducting 12 home visits to immigrants in a single day. Each visit was limited to five minutes, despite requirements to compile a comprehensive report on the immigrant’s living conditions, she stated. Geo Group charged DHS up to $88 per visit.
Lawyers and immigration rights groups indicated that those under surveillance face travel restrictions. If immigrants venture beyond a defined area, the software alerts case officers. Because numerous check-ins must occur from home on a scheduled day, such as Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., individuals are frequently confined, impacting their employment prospects or everyday activities.
Laura Rivera, a senior lawyer for Just Futures Law, specializing in technology usage for immigration enforcement, observed, “Whatever radius is imposed, that becomes the extent of their lives.”
Geo Group stores data gathered from the surveillance program on its private servers, complicating government access and analysis, according to current and former ICE officials. Former company employees cited technical issues, including reliance on outdated servers that frequently crashed, weak smartwatch batteries, and a software flaw where the app occasionally failed to prompt an immigrant to check in, potentially resulting in penalties.
Keeping the Contract
As Geo Group’s digital monitoring business expanded in 2022, some Biden administration officials within the Department of Homeland Security questioned the program’s cost and effectiveness.
DHS officials convened to formulate a plan to modify the program. This included establishing criteria for evaluating each immigrant’s risk of committing crimes or absconding, and the corresponding level of surveillance warranted, according to six individuals familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity to disclose internal deliberations. The officials aimed to divide the contract into three segments to solicit new bids, these individuals stated. Concurrently, DHS technology personnel were tasked with developing less expensive alternatives to Geo Group’s technology.
These actions threatened Geo Group’s continued involvement in the monitoring program, posing significant financial implications for its profitability. The company initiated lobbying efforts to disrupt these plans, according to agency officials and Capitol Hill staff members.
Conservatives and some career ICE officials joined in opposing the proposed changes. Thomas D. Homan, then affiliated with a conservative immigration group and currently Mr. Trump’s border czar, authored a Breitbart editorial criticizing the plans and the mid-level Biden administration official overseeing them. A conservative organization also launched a website specifically targeting this official.
Daniel Bible, ICE’s head of enforcement and removal operations at the time, also impeded the changes by mandating protracted reviews and delaying approvals, according to two sources. Last year, he joined Geo Group as an executive. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Ultimately, these efforts stalled, and initiatives to develop more affordable alternatives to Geo Group’s technology progressed no further than the testing phase.
Geo Group refuted allegations that it obstructed changes to the surveillance program, stating such claims “are part of a politicized effort by open borders groups to interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts and to abolish immigration enforcement writ large.”
Since Mr. Trump assumed office, fewer immigrants have crossed the border as the president has enacted legislation such as the Laken Riley Act. This law mandates increased detentions of immigrants with criminal histories in facilities, including those owned by Geo Group.
Mr. Zoley stated on a February earnings call that the new law could necessitate a “significant ramp-up in electronic monitoring.” He added that his company was prepared to scale its surveillance operations “by several hundreds of thousands and upward to several millions of participants as required.”
Geo Group’s technology has repeatedly assisted ICE officers in carrying out deportations, legal aid groups reported. In January, ICE agents in Georgia tracked an immigrant to a worksite and detained him, while another was apprehended outside a church, the groups said. More recently, an immigrant in New Jersey received a call from a Geo Group employee requesting he step outside his residence because the tracker was not transmitting a signal. Agents were awaiting him.
Legal aid groups expressed concerns that surveillance might soon be deployed for larger raids. In 2019, during the initial Trump administration, agents in Mississippi utilized data extracted from Geo Group’s tools to secure a warrant for a raid on a chicken processing plant. The ensuing operation, encompassing workplaces throughout the state, resulted in the detention of 680 immigrants.