MONEY FOR NOTHING

Trump’s Secret $1.2 Million a Day Empty ICE Jail Splurge Revealed

Analysis by PunchUp found 8,200 guaranteed ICE beds lying empty every night as private jail giants post record profits.

ICE is spending upwards of $1.2 million a day on empty jail beds, according to a new PunchUp analysis of the agency’s own detention data. The figures, released on July 20 after three months of non-publication, list each jail’s “guaranteed minimum”—beds funded nightly whether filled or not—and show around 8,200 of them idle across seven facilities, the analysis found. The biggest culprit, reports the Daily Beast’s new sister investigation Substack, is Camp East Montana, ICE’s tent complex at the Fort Bliss base in El Paso, Texas. There, taxpayers fund 5,000 beds but nightly occupancy averaged just 2,025 this fiscal year. Detention costs an average of $152 per person, per day, according to the National Immigration Forum, putting the annual bill for the ghost beds above $450 million. Meanwhile, GEO Group’s profits soared from $32 million in 2024 to $254.4 million in 2025, and founder George Zoley told investors in February: “This represents the largest amount of new business we have won in a single year in our company’s history.”

Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.