AG PAM BONDI: FORMER LOBBYIST FOR ICE PRIVATE PRISON CONTRACTOR
The Attorney General's past lobbying activities raise conflict of interest concerns amid Trump's mass deportation agenda.
By Cristina Matuozzi
Published March 26, 2026
Federal immigration agents guard Delaney Hall private detention center in Newark, NJ on Thursday, May 28, 2026. Photo copyright: Cristina Matuozzi/Sipa USA
Nov. 16, 2025
A lobbying disclosure report from the House of Representatives shows sitting U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi was a former registered lobbyist for multibillion dollar private prison company, GEO Group Inc., as recently as 2019.
GEO Group holds robust contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by which it owns and operates dozens of detention facilities around the country, amounting to a majority of 14,000 beds as of early 2025 according to a visualization of ICE data by The New York Times.
Its responsibilities extend beyond building and maintaining the facilities to include providing detainees with legal counsel, food, and medical treatment.
Attorney General Bondi’s history as a lobbyist has called into question the ability of the Department of Justice to objectively inspect, investigate and prosecute any GEO Group compliance infractions or human rights abuses.
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a letter dated May 2025, Durbin expressed doubt in Bondi’s ability to maintain impartiality regarding GEO Group oversight:
“With DOJ’s outsized role implementing President Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation agenda and the GEO Group securing long-term, multimillion-dollar contracts in recent weeks, I call on you to recuse yourself from any and all DOJ activities, communications, or policy decisions related to immigration detention, enforcement, and contracting that could directly or indirectly benefit the GEO Group or impact its federal contracts.”
Under Bondi, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security work in much closer collaboration, resulting from a DHS directive giving DOJ agencies expanded authority to apprehend noncitizens in the field.
“The directive gives Department of Justice (DOJ) law enforcement officials in the U.S. Marshals, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons authority to investigate and apprehend illegal aliens.”
SUMMIT PRESS has witnessed this directive put into play inside New York City immigration courts since June of this year as ATF, IRS, DSS, ICE and other agents line the hallways waiting to arrest noncitizens following their immigration status hearings, often regardless of the judge’s ruling.
Agents from multiple federal agencies wait in the halls of immigration court in Lower Manhattan, NY on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. Photo copyright: Cristina Matuozzi/Sipa USA
Between arrests in the courts and the field, DHS and DOJ work to deliver on Trump’s mass deportation efforts, all but guaranteeing increased profits for GEO Group and other smaller contractors.
GEO Group saw $682 million in Q3 2025 revenue compared to $603 million in Q3 2024. A publicly traded company, its CEO, George Zoley, highlighted the growth with shareholders in a Q3 earnings call:
“During the first three quarters of 2025, we believe we have made significant progress towards meeting our growth and strategic objectives.
Since the beginning of the year, we have entered into new or expanded contracts that represent over $460 million in new incremental annualized revenues that are already under contract and are expected to normalize in 2026. This represents the largest amount of new business we have won in a single year in our Company’s history.
Going forward, we expect to be able to capture additional growth opportunities with 6,000 available high security idle beds and the ability to scale up our services in our electronic monitoring and secure transportation segments.”
The day following President Trump’s second inauguration, GEO Group’s opening stock price peaked at $35.79, rivaling numbers from Trump’s first term in 2017.
While GEO Group may see gains in revenue, it takes losses in reputation.
The RFK Human Rights group formulated a response to GEO Group’s shareholder call in the form of an “investor risk brief.” The document highlights concerns over conditions inside GEO Group facilities including a pending lawsuit regarding exploitative prison labor and negative public reaction to the death of detainee, Chaofeng Ge, inside a shower stall of its Moshannon Valley Processing Center in August 2025.
First-hand detainee accounts obtained on a June 2025 tour of GEO’s Adelanto ICE Processing Center by advocacy group Disability Rights California noted:
“…several individuals pointing towards their mouths and shaking their heads ‘no’ to indicate that they were not receiving food.”
GEO Group also notably operated the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility which was named in a 2010 lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union detailing that children were living in “barbaric and unconstitutional conditions.”
“According to the lawsuit, one young man was tied to his bunk for over 24 hours, brutally raped and sexually assaulted after prison staff failed to heed his pleas for protection. Other youth have suffered multiple stabbings and beatings, including one youth who will live with permanent brain damage as a result of an attack in which prison staff were entirely complicit.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, prompted Bondi during her confirmation hearing:
“You have worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the private prison company, GEO group. As you know, the federal government relies heavily on GEO to detain immigrants. If confirmed as Attorney General, how will you ensure that immigration courts will provide immigrants, including those in immigration detention, a fair day in court?”
Bondi responded:
“If confirmed as Attorney General, I would carefully review any statutes, executive orders, and other applicable laws to ensure that the Department’s immigration proceedings fully comport with all federal laws.”
