Which private prison firms stopped working with ICE and in what years?
Executive summary
No comprehensive public record in the provided reporting shows a sustained, industry-wide pullout of private prison firms from ICE contracts; instead, the dominant private operators—GEO Group and CoreCivic—have continued to hold and even seek new ICE work while some federal (DOJ/BOP) contracts were allowed to expire after President Biden’s January 2021 executive order (which did not cover ICE) [1] [2]. Specific facility closures and contract terminations occurred at the margin (for example, some former BOP-contracted sites like North Lake were shuttered in 2022), but the reporting does not document a clean break by named firms from ICE as a whole [3] [4].
1. The core question — did major firms stop working with ICE, and when?
The reporting shows no clear instance in which the largest private prison corporations—GEO Group and CoreCivic—completely exited ICE work during the period covered; instead, both companies continued to seek and secure ICE contracts and to benefit from immigration-detention revenue even after 2020 [2] [5] [6]. Biden’s January 2021 executive order instructed the Department of Justice not to renew contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities (BOP/USMS) but explicitly did not apply to Immigration and Customs Enforcement because ICE sits inside DHS, not DOJ, which meant ICE contracts were largely unaffected by that directive [1] [2].
2. What actually changed after the Biden executive order — DOJ contracts, not ICE lines
Multiple analyses and advocacy groups documented that the 2021 order led to nonrenewal of DOJ contracts and pressure on firms’ federal prison business, but it did not require companies to stop serving ICE; ICE contracting continued, and ICE contracts represented a large share of GEO and CoreCivic revenue (about 28 percent of 2020 revenue for each, per reporting) [2] [1]. In short, firms lost or had DOJ/BOP business decline beginning in 2021 because of the directive, but the same sources show ICE work persisted and even expanded in later years [2] [5].
3. Facility-level shutdowns and re-openings: partial pauses, not full exits
There are examples where particular facilities were closed or saw DOJ contracts terminated—North Lake Correctional Facility was described as shuttered in 2022 before later interest in reopening it as an ICE facility, demonstrating facility-level stops that did not translate into firms abandoning ICE work [3] [4]. Reporting also documents CoreCivic and GEO pursuing new ICE opportunities and reopening previously closed sites for ICE use in 2024–2025, signaling continued engagement rather than withdrawal [5] [3].
4. Why reporting may suggest “stops” even when firms stayed in the market
Advocates and investigative outlets emphasize closures of DOJ-funded prison contracts and local bans on private prisons in some states, which can create the impression that private prison companies are being pushed out; however, many of those same companies pivoted toward immigration detention—where federal policy and funding differ—and have competed for major ICE contracts into 2024–2025 [7] [8] [5]. The reporting shows financial incentives, lobbying and revolving-door personnel moves that encouraged continued ICE business even as pressure mounted on DOJ-side contracts [9] [6].
5. Limits of the available reporting and the honest answer
Within the provided sources, there is no definitive list or timeline showing private prison firms formally ending their relationships with ICE; rather, the evidence documents DOJ contract nonrenewals beginning in 2021 and facility-level shutdowns in subsequent years, while ICE contracting persisted and private operators sought to reopen or secure ICE sites through 2024–2025 [1] [2] [3] [5]. If the question seeks a catalog of firms that completely stopped working with ICE and the exact dates, the available reporting does not supply that; instead it documents a pattern of continued ICE reliance on private firms and selective closures or role shifts at individual facilities [1] [4].
Conclusion — direct answer in one sentence
Based on the supplied reporting, no major private prison firm is documented as having wholly ceased ICE work on a given date; what did occur was the nonrenewal of DOJ/BOP contracts starting in 2021 (per Biden’s executive order) and isolated facility closures (e.g., North Lake in 2022), while GEO Group and CoreCivic continued pursuing and holding ICE contracts through 2024–2025 [1] [2] [3] [5].