Although many people are not thrilled about Donald Trump's immigration act that promises to deport millions of immigrants, there may be a winner in this whole debacle- the private prison industry. It is being reported that the private prison industry may grow in stock as Trump's move may garner big money.
According to FOX News Latino, some analysts believe the prison population could climb under the Trump administration, and the stock market seems to agree.
A day after the election, CoreCivic Co., formerly Corrections Corporation of America, saw the biggest percentage gain on the New York Stock Exchange with shares climbing 43 percent. Geo Group, another private prison company, saw its shares jump 21 percent.
The site reports that the federal prison population had been trending down for nearly a decade when the Obama administration announced in August that it would phase out its use of some private facilities. The announcement followed a Justice Department audit saying private facilities have more safety and security problems than government-run lockups.
However, Trump is actually in full support of private prisons. While mentioning that the private prison system was a mess, the president-elect is ready to make a few changes.
"I do think we can do a lot of privatizations and private prisons. It seems to work a lot better," Trump told MSNBC in March, though he didn't offer any details on what that might mean for the federal prison system.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds up to 34,000 immigrants awaiting deportation.Forty-six of the roughly 180 facilities in which ICE holds those immigrants are privately run, with about 73 percent of detainees held in the private facilities, the agency says.
"Trump was saying during his 100-day plan that mandatory minimums for people re-entering the country would be set at two years — that's going to require a longer-term need for beds," said Michael Kodesch, a senior associate with financial services firm Canaccord Genuity Inc.
Immigration detention centers are particularly profitable for private prison companies because they command a higher rate for each inmate bed, he said.
While many people seem to be onboard with growing the prison industry, some people are against it, such as Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a national nonprofit group that works to reduce incarceration and detention rates.
"They're handing the keys to a deportation machine over to the Trump administration," Libal said. "And I think there's no reason to believe that the Trump administration won't drive that machine forward through human rights protections or due process protections people in the detention system."
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