Which county or municipal jails had the largest ICE detention contracts in 2025?
Executive summary
ICE dramatically expanded detention capacity in 2025 through large no‑bid and sole‑source deals that funneled billions to private prison operators and local contractors; GEO Group reactivated multiple facilities adding roughly 6,600 beds and ICE awarded a 15‑year, $1 billion contract to GEO for a 1,000‑bed Newark site, while CoreCivic won contracts tied to reopening a 1,033‑bed Leavenworth site [1] [2] [3]. Reporting shows ICE also doubled or enlarged major processing centers — including Folkston, Georgia, and facilities across Texas, California and Michigan — making those local jails and privately run centers among the largest ICE detention contracts in 2025 [4] [1] [5].
1. Big private operators captured the largest contracts
The clearest headline of 2025 is that the largest monetary awards and biggest bed expansions went to major private prison companies. GEO Group reportedly reactivated four facilities adding roughly 6,600 beds for ICE and won a headline 15‑year, $1 billion contract to operate a roughly 1,000‑bed Newark processing and detention center (Delaney Hall) — positioning GEO’s New Jersey site and its reactivated California City and other sites among the largest single contracts that year [1] [2]. CoreCivic also received large assignments, including a preliminary deal to reopen a 1,033‑bed Leavenworth facility, and its ICE revenue rose as utilization hit record levels [3] [5].
2. Local jails and county contracts also ballooned in scale
Beyond the largest private‑firm awards, ICE expanded and modified contracts with county and municipal jails. Reporting shows ICE doubled processing capacity in Folkston, Georgia — creating what local coverage called the country’s largest ICE detention center there — and expanded use of county jails in Texas, California, Michigan and Missouri as the agency sought to add thousands of beds quickly [4] [5] [6]. The Marshall Project tracked ICE contracting with or operating roughly 147 facilities as of May, up from 107 months earlier, indicating many county jails gained larger or new ICE contracts [6].
3. No‑bid and emergency contracting shaped who got the biggest deals
Multiple outlets emphasize the procurement method: ICE relied heavily on sole‑source and no‑bid justifications and expedited processes to secure capacity under a stated “compelling urgency.” That practice steered massive funding to politically connected firms and expedited reopenings of mothballed facilities — a dynamic documented by AP and advocacy groups and central to why large awards clustered with a handful of companies and some local operators [3] [7].
4. Federal budget expansions amplified contract size and scope
Congressional appropriation and agency solicitations amplified the scale of contracts. Analysts and advocacy groups report ICE sought massive emergency funding — a solicitation that could cover up to $45 billion over two years — and the July funding package increased enforcement resources dramatically, which translated into larger, longer‑term detention contracts and proposals for tent camps and military‑base facilities [8] [7]. That budget context explains why multi‑hundred‑million and billion‑dollar deals appeared in 2025 [8] [2].
5. Competing viewpoints: public interest vs. local economic drivers
Advocacy groups and legal experts warned that large contracts expand a “deportation‑industrial complex” and reduce oversight, increasing risk of inhumane conditions; Detention Watch Network and the Brennan Center framed the procurement surge as likely to entrench private profits and weaken standards [7] [8]. Local officials and some county leaders emphasized jobs and federal dollars — Missouri sheriffs and Georgia officials described hiring and economic benefits from new ICE contracts [6] [4]. Both perspectives appear repeatedly in the sources [7] [6].
6. What the available reporting does — and does not — say about “largest” jails
Available sources name specific big projects: GEO’s Newark/Delaney Hall ($1 billion for ~1,000 beds) and reactivations adding ~6,600 beds; CoreCivic’s Leavenworth (~1,033 beds) and other multihundred‑million deals; Folkston’s doubling to become the largest single ICE processing center in local reporting [2] [1] [3] [4]. Sources do not provide a single ranked list of every county or municipal jail by contract dollar value in 2025; they do not list precise contract dollar totals for individual county jails nationwide, nor a definitive ordering of which municipal jail had the absolute largest ICE contract by dollars (not found in current reporting).
7. Bottom line for readers
If your question is which operators and facilities held the largest ICE detention contracts in 2025, the reporting points squarely to major private operators (GEO Group and CoreCivic) and several enlarged processing centers (Newark/Delaney Hall, Leavenworth, Folkston and reactivated GEO facilities) as the largest single awards and bed expansions [2] [1] [3] [4]. For a definitive ranked list of county/municipal jails by contract dollar value, available sources do not provide that dataset — federal contract records or ICE procurement disclosures would be the next empirical step (not found in current reporting).