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President Trump’s ramp-up of Immigration and Customs Enforcement round-ups of undocumented immigrants has been a financial bonanza for prison operator Geo Group.
On Feb. 27, Geo announced a 15-year contract with ICE to provide support services for a processing center at its 1,000-bed Delaney Hall Facility in Newark. That will generate more than $60M in annual revenues.
On March 20, it landed an ICE pact for its 1,800-bed North Lake Facility in Baldwin, MI. That’s worth $85M-plus in annual revenues.
On June 9, it got to modify an existing contract to expand the D. Ray James Facility in Georgia, which will bring in $66M in annual revenues.
On June 10, it settled a court case that paved the way for full intake at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California. That will generate more than $30M a year.
What a godsend Trump has been for GEO.
The company though is a tad defensive about its work for ICE. It features a “Setting the Record Straight: The GEO Group's Services to the Federal Government” section on its website that showcases its gleaming facilities.
One major omission: there’s not a single detainee in any of the photos.
Good luck to CBS News… Paramount, a Skydance Corporation CEO David Ellison refers to “Paramount teammates,” who are “the heart of this company.”
In his first message to staffers, shareholders and consumers, Ellison uses the rather underwhelming “news partners” term for the CBS crew.
The son of billionaire Larry Ellison recognizes the CBS News unit has faced a “challenging period and we’re deeply grateful for your resilience, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to the news business.”
That tough period was largely due to Paramount Global non-executive chairman Shari Redstone’s willingness to cave to the Trump administration. The 71-year-old wanted out.
The 33-year-old Ellison does give a shout-out to “60 Minutes” and its “long tradition of impactful reporting led by seasoned journalists committed to accuracy, integrity, and public trust.”
Underline the words “long” and “seasoned.” Those are unusual terms coming from a guy who headed a 15-year-old digital studio that prizes fresh, buzzy and new.
Ellison said he looks forward “to continuing to foster a newsroom culture where journalists are empowered, trusted, and equipped to do their best work.”
We’ll see about that.
Heading for the fields?… Donald Trump, who has been branded “economically illiterate" by former Treasury Dept. counselor Steven Rattner, thinks the 1.2M decline in foreign-born workers in the US from January and July, is just peachy.
“That’s a great number, by the way, because it means we’re putting AMERICANS to work,” Trump told CNBC.
Does the president really think native-born Americans are going to take those agricultural, construction, hotel, food delivery, landscaping, child care and retail jobs that were held by undocumented people?
The economy will take a major hit as those jobs go unfilled.
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