Which tribes have signed contracts to host ICE detainees or provide detention-related services since 2023, and what were the terms?
Executive summary
Two distinct threads emerge from reporting: at least three Native-owned entities have held contracts with ICE or DHS-related detention work in recent years — the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s development arm (KPB Services/Prairie Band LLC), an LLC tied to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and Akima (part of NANA Regional Corporation) — each with different scopes, dollar values and reactions from their communities [1] [2] [3]. Publicly reported terms range from “due diligence and concept design” work for processing/detention centers to financial, administrative and security-support services worth millions, and at least one tribe has tried to exit or cancel the deal amid backlash [1] [4] [2].
1. Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation — a near-$30 million design contract and a political firestorm
A tribal economic subsidiary described as Prairie Band LLC or KPB Services LLC was reported to have signed a federal contract initially described in government contracting databases as a roughly $19 million award for “due diligence and concept designs” for processing centers and detention centers, and reporting later characterized the engagement as a nearly $30 million contract to vet and design large ICE facilities [1] [4] [5]. The work, per the one-line government description cited in reporting, focused on early-stage design and concept work rather than direct detainee operations, but the size and purpose of the project prompted immediate condemnation from tribal members and other Native advocates who called it antithetical to tribal history [4] [1]. After public backlash the Prairie Band leadership said it was seeking to terminate ties and “successfully exited all third-party related interests affiliated with ICE,” and the tribal council also removed senior LLC leaders connected to the award [4] [1].
2. Poarch Band of Creek Indians — multimillion-dollar financial/administrative services
Reporting identifies an LLC owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama as the holder of a multimillion-dollar contract to provide financial and administrative services to ICE [2] [6]. Coverage frames this work as distinct from facility design or guard services, emphasizing support functions rather than day-to-day detention operations, but the reporting does not publish the contract’s full text or granular line-item terms in the excerpts available [2]. Community response details and any tribal-level actions tied to that contract are referenced but not fully documented in the provided sources [2].
3. Akima / NANA Regional Corporation — long-standing contracts for detention-related support
Alaska Native corporations — specifically NANA Regional Corporation’s portfolio firm Akima — have held substantial Department of Homeland Security and ICE-related contracts, including contracts linked to detention services and security at federal facilities (reporting cites even Guantánamo-related work), and those relationships date back years rather than being isolated post-2023 awards [3]. Reporting characterizes these as multi-million-dollar federal contracts under NANA’s corporate umbrella, and notes shareholder concern that corporate contracting can diverge from community values [3]. The sources do not provide the specific contract language for Akima’s ICE-related work in the provided excerpts, so precise operational terms cannot be stated here from the available reporting [3].
4. Community backlash, governance split and accountability questions
Across the reporting, community outrage and moral framing are recurring: Prairie Band leaders explicitly invoked historical trauma and compared reservations to “the government’s first attempts at detention centers” as justification for canceling or trying to exit deals [4] [1]. Activists and tribal citizens pushed back publicly, and in at least one case the tribal council removed LLC leadership and announced an exit from third-party ICE affiliations [1] [4]. Reporting also highlights friction between tribal governments and their often-independent corporate subsidiaries, raising governance and accountability questions about how economic arms pursue federal contracts that tribal citizens oppose [3] [1].
5. Limits of available reporting and what remains unverified
The sources provided identify Prairie Band/KPB Services, Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ LLC, and Akima/NANA as Native-owned entities with ICE- or DHS-related contracts and provide high-level dollar figures and scope descriptors — design/due diligence, financial/administrative support, and detention/security services respectively [1] [2] [3]. They do not, in the material supplied, include the full contract texts, comprehensive lists of all tribes that may have held contracts since 2023, nor every contractual clause (termination rights, labor provisions, service-level obligations), so definitive claims beyond the cited reporting would exceed the sources provided [1] [2] [3].