End Federal Private Immigration Detention Contracts

The 2021 order ending private prison contracts excluded immigration detention, and private companies now run most of it.

A letter to your members of Congress. Facts checked September 24, 2026.

The explainer behind this letter Private Prisons How companies profit from prisons and immigration detention

The Letter

Subject Close the private-detention loophole and ban empty-bed billing

Our tax dollars should not pay a company for an empty jail cell. That is how much of immigration detention works. ICE pays private companies by the bed, by the day, and many contracts guarantee payment whether the beds are full or not. In May 2020 alone, the Government Accountability Office found ICE spent $20.5 million on more than 12,000 unused beds a day.

The 2021 order that ended private prison contracts at the Justice Department left immigration detention out. Private companies ran facilities holding 90.8% of ICE detainees in 2023, and a 2025 law added $45 billion for detention. At one CoreCivic center, federal inspectors found broken plumbing in half the cells while ICE paid about $2 million a month.

Please support legislation that ends federal contracts for private immigration detention, including the guarantees that bill us for empty beds.

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U.S. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121

I'm a constituent calling to ask the representative to support ending federal contracts for private immigration detention.
The 2021 order that ended private prison contracts left ICE detention out, and private companies ran facilities holding 90.8% of ICE detainees in 2023.
Many contracts guarantee payment for empty beds. In May 2020, ICE spent $20.5 million on more than 12,000 unused beds a day.
Please support legislation that ends these contracts and the empty-bed guarantees.

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The Facts Behind the Ask

90.8% Share of ICE detainees held in privately owned or run facilities, July 2023 (source)
$20.5M ICE spending on more than 12,000 unused beds a day in May 2020, under guaranteed minimums (source)
$45 billion Detention funding in the 2025 budget law, through September 2029 (source)

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