Lucrative Borders: The Business of Immigration Detention in the United States
Since the tragic events of September 11, US immigration policy has undergone a profound transformation, increasingly linked to the logic of national security. The American discourse of “border control” and “internal protection” has consolidated a veritable detention industry, both state-run and private, whose economic impact obscures legal principles. It not only erodes individual rights but also reshapes the country's real economy, creating clearly defined winners and losers.
Mass Detention and National Security
What is the “detention industry”?
The term “detention industry” is not figurative, as it refers to a network of institutions, contracts, and companies that profit from the deprivation of liberty. In the United States, the immigration detention system rests on three pillars:
• The State (ICE, DHS, and local governments).
• Private prison companies (CoreCivic, GEO Group, among others).
• Service networks (food, health, transportation, logistics).
For several years, the number of people in immigration detention has grown exponentially. To house this population, ICE has increased its detention capacity, not only managing its own facilities but also contracting with private prisons and local governments, often in small towns where a detention center can become the primary employer.
Money Behind Bars
This massive flow of money has turned immigration detention into a highly lucrative market for private corporations such as GEO Group and CoreCivic, companies that manage a large portion of the centers used by ICE, reporting revenues exceeding $2.6 billion in 2025 (GEO Group), driven primarily by federal immigration contracts.
This model generates a clear conflict of interest: companies have incentives to maximize the detained population and minimize health and safety costs, while the local governments where these centers are located depend on the jobs and tax revenue generated by detention. As a result, many communities develop an economic dependence on the expansion of the immigration detention system.
Who wins and who loses?
On the one hand, for private prison companies, immigration detention is a well-established market niche. Contracts with ICE guarantee them stable income, with minimum occupancy guarantees that ensure cells are always full, even if the flow of migrants decreases. Furthermore, bids for services such as food, medicine, and internal stores are fiercely contested, strengthening supply chains that are particularly advantageous for large contractors.
To a lesser extent, some rural regions end up benefiting because the opening of a detention center generates direct employment (guards, administrative staff, service personnel) and tax revenue. For these local governments, detention becomes an economic benefit, supporting institutions such as hospitals, schools, and municipal services. However, this economic dependence can become risky if immigration policies change in the future.
On the other hand, the main victims are the migrants themselves and their families, especially in “mixed-status” households (where some members are citizens and others are not), as they often face prolonged separation, loss of income, and serious psychological harm. Many children are left in situations of emotional and economic vulnerability when one or both parents are detained or deported, leading to family instability and difficulties accessing education, housing, and healthcare.
Likewise, U.S. productive sectors also suffer significant consequences, since a large part of the workforce is made up of undocumented migrants, who participate in essential activities such as agriculture, construction, food processing, cleaning, and domestic services. Mass raids and deportations cause labor shortages, reduced productivity, and increased labor costs, particularly in agricultural states like California, Texas, and Florida.
Forced Labor and Economic Exploitation
Beyond simple “detention,” the U.S. system has incorporated forms of forced labor or extremely low-wage labor within prisons. Programs like the PIECP (Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program) allow private companies to hire incarcerated individuals for very low wages, with deductions that can reach up to 80% of their salary. These individuals build infrastructure, produce goods, or provide services for private companies while still incarcerated.
From the perspective of international law, this resembles forms of economic exploitation prohibited by norms against forced labor and required by decent work standards. But in practice, the model is presented as an “employment opportunity” for incarcerated individuals, when in reality it perpetuates a supply chain that benefits from cheap and highly disciplined labor.
National Security vs. International Principles
The US Administration insists that mass detention and the tightening of border control policies are necessary to protect national security. However, comparative policy studies and human rights analyses indicate that this logic may be more political than technical: it often translates into a militarization of the border and a commodification of deprivation of liberty, rather than a real improvement in public safety.
From the perspective of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL), three problems stand out:
• Disproportionality: the response (thousands of cells, private centers, mass deportations) is usually disproportionate to the risk posed by most migrants.
• Lack of necessity: non-carceral alternatives exist (community-based control, electronic monitoring, support programs) that are less costly and less harmful to human rights.
• Conflicts of interest: when the local economy depends on detention, political decisions are tainted by economic interests, and the discussion on human rights takes a back seat.
An Unsustainable Model: Economically and Ethically
From the perspective of international humanitarian law, the U.S. immigration detention system demonstrates how the category of “national security” can be used to legitimize practices that violate principles of dignity, proportionality, and non-discrimination. From an economic perspective, it reveals a model in which resources are redistributed to the private security sector, at the cost of distorting the labor market, weakening the productivity of key sectors, and impoverishing migrant families.
In other words, the “detention industry” is not neutral: it is a system that combines border control, privatization of incarceration, and market rationality, with clear consequences for the real economy and the country's democratic quality. The challenge here is to analyze how a security discourse becomes a business machine, and how that business has both an economic and a human cost that is difficult to ignore.
References
American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU). (2025). Privatized Immigration Detention.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/privatized-immigration-detention
Goldman Sachs
Research. (2025). How will declining immigration impact the US economy?
https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/how-will-declining-immigration-impact-the-us-economy
La Nación. (2025, July 26). Immigrant detention, an economic windfall for private prisons in the US.
Martínez, A. (2026, April 1). A new report denounces abuses and cruelty at the ICE family detention center in Dilley.
NPR. (2025, June 3). Private prisons and local jails are ramping up as ICE detention exceeds capacity.
UN News. (2020, July 12). The United States would move away from international humanitarian law with planned changes to its asylum system.
https://news.un.org/es/story/2020/07/1477271
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