The Companies Behind ICE

By Donald Shaw, David Moore,

Published on Jan 16, 2026   —   4 min read

Summary

Sludge built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has grown its network of private industry partners since the start of the second Trump administration to support its agents as they storm into cities and detain people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants. 

Last year, the ICE agency obligated more money than ever to private contractors, and this year it’s on pace to easily top last year’s record. More than 600 companies have been working with Trump’s ICE, including businesses in nearly every state.

Using USAspending.gov data, Sludge created an interactive map that shows every company in the U.S. that has either entered into a new contract with ICE during the second Trump administration or has been awarded new obligations under an existing contract. Click on the map for details including amounts and contract service descriptions.

Since President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, ICE has approved contract obligations totaling $5.2 billion. While most of ICE’s contracting dollars go to large prison and technology companies, the agency's network of private-sector partners extends across the country and spans a wide range of industries. Nearly every state is home to ICE contractors, including companies with million dollar-plus contracts that operate out of unexpected locations like suburban neighborhoods or rural areas.

Almost two-thirds of ICE’s spending obligations so far under Trump’s second term have gone to just seven companies. The top recipient has been ​​Albuquerque-based CSI Aviation, ICE’s main contractor for deportation flights, which has received more than $1.2 billion in contract obligations. CSI Aviation, which hosted a rally for Trump days before the 2024 election, has seen its ICE revenue soar since the start of last year—around a 10x increase compared with May, before the passage of the Trump-GOP reconciliation bill.

GEO Group, the largest private prison operator in the country, has received $683.4 million worth of contract obligations since Trump reentered the White House, and another prison company CoreCivic has received $269 million. The companies’ stock prices rose last year under a $45 billion plan in the Trump-signed "One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)" to expand ICE’s detention facilities, and their CEOs cheered their soaring revenue from ICE in August earnings calls. Each contractor bestowed $500,000 to the Trump–Vance inaugural in December 2024 (the former via its PAC), with their executives giving millions of dollars more last cycle to Trump campaign groups.

The Richmond, Virginia-based company Acquisition Logistics has seen a staggering rise in obligated ICE revenue under Trump: nearly $600 million so far. Last year, the small company, which had little record of operating immigration detention centers, won a $1.2 billion Army contract to build what it touted as the largest immigration detention complex in the nation near El Paso, Texas. Owned by a retired Navy flight officer, the company had previously never received a contract award above $16 million.

Three more companies have been awarded nine-figure amounts in ICE contract obligations since the start of last year: Bethesda-based telecommunications company Tribalco ($206 million); Virginia-headquartered conglomerate Akima ($181.7 million), which runs the Guantánamo Bay detention center; and Virginia-based defense contractor MVM, Inc. ($135 million).

Palantir, the MAGA-aligned software and analytics contractor, has received payments from ICE toward $81 million in contract obligations since Trump’s inauguration. Internal ICE materials seen by 404 Media reveal that Palantir is building an app being used by ICE agents, named ELITE, that locates targets on a map-like interface, drawing in data from sources like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Palantir’s overall government contract obligations, including from the Army, Air Force, and other federal departments, jumped to $1 billion last year. Palantir CEO Alex Karp gave $1 million to both the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. super PAC and the inauguration, and the company reportedly donated to the president’s White House ballroom project. One of the company’s projects with the Army, the Project Maven AI tool, was expanded last year to a ceiling of $1.3 billion through 2029.

Some brand-name companies are keeping up contracts with ICE as the agency has tackled, tased, and shot American citizens and immigrants in what civil rights groups including the ACLU argue is a violation of due process. The New York City-based consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP has been given more than $48.8 million in obligated payments from ICE under Trump for services including logistical and administrative support. Dell’s government contracting arm has raked in ICE payments toward more than $25.2 million in contracts for licensing of Microsoft’s “business intelligence” platform Power BI. Media company Thomson Reuters has been awarded $7.5 million for subscription services to law enforcement databases. Xerox has been awarded more than $153,000 by ICE for equipment and on-site support. 

Among defense contractors, General Dynamics has seen a jump in obligated ICE revenue since the start of last year, being paid toward more than $17 million in contracts for investigative services, a more than fivefold increase in its active contracts since May. Similarly, the contractor L3Harris has received payments toward more than $12.6 million in ICE contracts for technical investigative equipment like handsets, a threefold increase over that time. Contractors Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, and Axon have also done business with ICE since Trump’s inauguration.

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