WLRN: Indivisible Boca Raton Rallies at GEO Group Headquarters, Demands End to For-Profit Immigration Detention

WLRN Public Media | By Sergio R. Bustos

Published July 27, 2025 at 12:42 PM EDT

Anti-Trump activists protest Saturday morning, July 26, 2025, near the Boca Raton headquarters of GEO Group, one of the country’s largest private prison contractors, demanding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ends its business ties with companies housing immigrants.

On Saturday, July 26, 2025, approximately 100 demonstrators gathered near the Boca Raton headquarters of GEO Group, one of the largest private prison contractors in the United States, in a protest organized by Indivisible Boca Raton. The action called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to sever its business relationships with for-profit companies that house detained immigrants.

WLRN Public Media covered the protest, reporting on the broader financial ties between private detention contractors and the Trump Administration. The GEO Group and CoreCivic, along with their subsidiaries and executives, contributed nearly $2.8 million to Trump's 2024 election efforts and inaugural fund, according to a report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. That same organization found that 90 percent of the nation's immigrant detention centers are managed by private, for-profit companies. The passage of Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" has allocated $45 billion for ICE to pay private contractors to expand mass detention operations.

The GEO Group operates 14 ICE processing centers under federal contract, including the Broward Transitional Center. The company reported net income of nearly $20 million in the first quarter of 2025 on revenue of $604 million.

Indivisible Boca Raton founder Myra Kremenitzer called the detention model morally indefensible. "The GEO Group has built a business model around the suffering of vulnerable individuals, many of whom are fleeing violence, persecution, and poverty," Kremenitzer said. "This is not justice. It's exploitation."

Kremenitzer outlined three demands: termination of ICE contracts with private prison operators including GEO Group, the release of detained immigrants, and a congressional investigation into the role of private contractors in immigration enforcement. "It's immoral for ICE to destroy lives without due process," Kremenitzer said. "Aiding and abetting that dirty work for profit, like the GEO Group, is reprehensible."

Read the full original article at WLRN.org: https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2025-07-27/protesters-rally-in-boca-raton-demand-end-to-ice-contracts-with-geo-group-private-prison-companies