Which ICE detention centers are operated under contract (but not owned) by GEO Group or CoreCivic, and where are they located?
Executive summary
Public reporting shows that both GEO Group and CoreCivic operate a long list of ICE detention facilities around the United States — named sites include Aurora (CO), Newark/Delaney Hall (NJ), Bakersfield and McFarland (CA), Dilley (TX), California City (CA) and several facilities in Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio and Oklahoma — but the sources provided do not consistently state whether the company owns each site or merely operates it under contract for ICE, so ownership versus operator status cannot be fully confirmed from the available reporting [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. GEO Group — the facilities reporters most often name
GEO Group is repeatedly identified as the manager of ICE processing and detention sites, including the Aurora ICE Processing/Immigrant Processing Center in Aurora, Colorado, which is described as “operated by the GEO Group” [1] [6], and the company has announced plans to reopen Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, as a roughly 1,000‑bed immigration detention center [2]. GEO is also named as the private operator of facilities in California such as Mesa Verde in Bakersfield and the Golden State Annex in McFarland [3], and GEO’s corporate material lists multiple ICE Processing Centers it operates for ICE [7].
2. CoreCivic — reopenings, expansions and named contracts
CoreCivic appears in reporting as the contractor chosen to run multiple ICE facilities and to reopen dormant prisons for ICE use, including a high‑profile reopening of the California City facility as an ICE processing center (reported as operated by CoreCivic) and the company’s announcement it would reopen the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas [3] [2] [4]. CoreCivic has also been reported as awarded or pursuing contracts to operate facilities such as a Leavenworth, Kansas detention center under a federal contract [4].
3. Multi‑state footprint and aggregated capacity claims
Reporting and industry analysis emphasize scale rather than a neat facility‑by‑facility ownership ledger: CoreCivic told investors it can make thousands of beds available across multiple facilities and has expanded contracts to accommodate up to 784 detainees in facilities in Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio and Oklahoma [8] [5]. GEO likewise advertises idle capacity and has reactivated multiple facilities to add thousands of beds for ICE [8]. These accounts show which companies operate sites for ICE and where, while stopping short of uniformly clarifying title ownership [8].
4. What the sources do and do not allow the record to show
The assembled reporting reliably identifies specific locations that GEO or CoreCivic operate for ICE — Aurora, Newark/Delaney Hall, Bakersfield (Mesa Verde), McFarland (Golden State Annex), California City, Dilley (South Texas Family Residential Center), Leavenworth and multiple southern and midwestern facilities — but the sources do not consistently say whether those facilities are owned by the companies or simply run under contract for ICE; some facilities historically have been owned by the contractors while others were state or federally owned and contracted out, a distinction that the current set of sources does not resolve in every case [9] [7] [4] [2] [3].
5. Bottom line and reporting caveat
For readers seeking a definitive list of “operated but not owned” ICE facilities for GEO Group and CoreCivic, the available reporting allows a confident list of sites these companies operate for ICE and their locations (Aurora, Newark, Bakersfield, McFarland, California City, Dilley, Leavenworth and various CoreCivic sites in Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio and Oklahoma), but it does not provide authoritative documentation in each instance that ownership is absent; confirming the precise ownership status of each facility will require contract records, property deeds or ICE procurement documents that are not contained in the materials assembled here [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [8].