Axios reported on May 7, 2026 that the Trump administration is in talks to buy immigrant-detention facilities outright from the private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic, a shift from ICE's mostly leased network. According to the reporting and the companies themselves, a central motive is to put the facilities under federal ownership so they can evade the growing state oversight of conditions and abuse, and some related lawsuits.
GEO Group hosts about 25,000 ICE beds; CoreCivic leases roughly a quarter of ICE's detention beds. GEO Group CEO George Zoley said the quiet part out loud: as “some blue states are considering more active involvement in oversight of facilities,” federal ownership would “provide stronger credibility in the courts as to the Supremacy Clause,” leaving states with only “very limited” involvement. Analysts noted it was one of the first times an industry executive openly admitted the purpose of the purchases is to circumvent state law.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to own its detention space rather than lease it, after the network's population peaked above 70,000 detainees earlier in the year. The buy-out approach emerged as a “Plan B” after backlash to an earlier proposal to warehouse detainees in untested mega-facilities run by inexperienced contractors.