How Private Prisons Became Surveillance Companies

GEO Group made $800 million from ICE in 2025. Its fastest-growing business isn't locking people up: it's tracking them with ankle monitors, smartphone apps, and smartwatches.

TL;DR: GEO Group, America's largest private prison operator, has quietly transformed into a surveillance company. Its subsidiary BI Incorporated tracks 180,000 immigrants using GPS ankle monitors, the SmartLINK smartphone app, and VeriWatch smartwatches that can't be removed. In December 2025, BI won a $121 million ICE contract to hunt down immigrants who've missed check-ins. The company calls it "skip tracing." It means using surveillance data to locate people so ICE can arrest them. GEO Group won $800 million in ICE business in 2025, and expects its surveillance division to generate $700 million through 2026. When detention beds empty, the tracking devices stay full.

From Prison Beds to Ankle Bands

GEO Group didn't stumble into surveillance. It bought the business.

In 2011, GEO acquired BI Incorporated, a Colorado-based company that manufactures GPS tracking devices. At the time, BI already had a contract with ICE to run the agency's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP): an "alternative to detention" that puts immigrants on electronic monitoring instead of in cells.[1]

That contract has been lucrative. In 2020, BI signed a five-year, $2.2 billion deal with ICE to keep running ISAP.[2] When that expires, GEO expects even bigger numbers.

The business model is elegant, if cynical: GEO Group gets paid whether you're locked in a cell or tracked on the street. Either way, you're their product.

The Tracking Arsenal

BI Incorporated offers ICE a menu of surveillance options:

GPS Ankle Monitors

The standard. Bulky, visible, and can't be removed without triggering an alert. ICE mandates ankle monitors "whenever possible" for adults in the alternatives-to-detention program.[3]

SmartLINK App

A smartphone app that tracks your location in real-time. But it doesn't stop there. SmartLINK collects a massive amount of personal data: geolocation, phone contacts, vehicle and driver information, and (crucially) biometric data including facial images and voice prints.[4]

Roughly 180,000 immigrants are currently tracked through SmartLINK and other BI tools. That number was 26,000 when Biden took office. It peaked at 253,875 before budget constraints forced ICE to scale back.[4]

VeriWatch Smartwatch

BI's newest product looks like an Apple Watch. It's not. The VeriWatch tracks location, scans faces for biometric authentication, and receives messages from ICE officers. Like the ankle monitor, it can't be removed by the wearer.[5]

ICE reserves VeriWatch for pregnant women, because strapping an ankle monitor to someone who's about to give birth is bad optics. But make no mistake: it's just as restrictive.[5]

Voice Recognition

BI also collects voice prints from immigrants in ISAP. Your voice becomes another biometric identifier in their database, used to verify identity during phone check-ins.[4]

The $121 Million Bounty Contract

In December 2025, ICE awarded BI Incorporated a two-year contract worth up to $121 million for "skip tracing" services.[6]

Skip tracing is what bounty hunters do. You miss a court date or a check-in, and someone comes looking. The contract authorizes BI to use "enhanced location research," "commercial data verification," and "physical observation" to find immigrants on ICE's non-detained docket.[6]

The Intercept reported that BI uses its surveillance data (the same data collected through SmartLINK, ankle monitors, and VeriWatch) to locate immigrants and their families so ICE agents can "easily swoop in and make arrests."[1]

As the Jersey Vindicator pointed out, this creates a disturbing form of vertical integration: GEO Group gets paid to track immigrants, then gets paid again when it helps ICE catch them, then gets paid a third time when they're detained in GEO facilities.[6]

Follow the Money

GEO Group has become ICE's largest contractor. In 2025 alone, the company won more than $800 million in ICE business, according to procurement records reviewed by Bloomberg.[7]

That includes:

  • $1 billion for the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey (15-year contract)[7]
  • $130 million annually from reopened facilities in New Jersey and Michigan[7]
  • $121 million for skip tracing over two years[6]
  • Ongoing ISAP revenue from the $2.2 billion monitoring contract[2]

GEO's surveillance division is now projected to generate $700 million through 2026. The company has stockpiled "several tens of thousands" of GPS tracking devices, ready to deploy.[7]

Your Data Stays Forever

Here's the part that should concern everyone tracked by BI's systems: your data doesn't disappear when you leave the program.

ICE publicly claims limited data retention. But a DHS privacy impact assessment shows BI maintains data for seven years after a program participant leaves. And FOIA documents suggest BI may retain data indefinitely.[4]

That means years of location history, facial images, voice prints, and contact information, all sitting in BI's servers, accessible to ICE.

The Lobbying Machine

GEO Group didn't wait for immigration enforcement to ramp up. It spent years making sure it would.

According to OpenSecrets, GEO has aggressively lobbied on "immigrant surveillance" legislation. The company's political action committee and executives have donated to candidates who support expanded ICE enforcement.[8]

Border Czar Tom Homan, who oversees immigration enforcement, previously took money from GEO Group. The company is now raking in contracts under his watch.[9]

The Surveillance Pipeline

GEO Group isn't alone in this pivot. CoreCivic, its main competitor, is making similar moves. The entire private prison industry is repositioning for a future where surveillance generates more profit than detention.[2]

For GEO, the math is simple: detention beds require buildings, staff, and overhead. Tracking devices scale infinitely. One ankle monitor costs a fraction of one jail cell.

And if mass deportations happen as promised, GEO wins twice: first through its detention contracts, then through the surveillance tools that help locate people for deportation.

What You Should Know

ATD Isn't Freedom

"Alternatives to detention" sounds humane. But wearing an ankle monitor or mandatory smartphone app means constant surveillance. ICE knows where you are at all times. Your data feeds their systems for years.

Data Feeds Skip Tracing

The location history, contact lists, and biometrics collected through SmartLINK can be used to find you later, or to find your family members. BI's skip-tracing contract explicitly uses this data.

You Can Request Your Data

Under the Privacy Act, you can submit FOIA requests for data held by DHS and ICE. Organizations like the Just Futures Law provide resources for understanding what data has been collected about you.

Legal Help Exists

If you're on ICE monitoring, organizations like the ACLU and Immigrants Rising offer legal resources. Know your rights, and know that missed check-ins can trigger serious consequences.

References

  1. The Intercept - ICE Hires Immigrant Bounty Hunters From Private Prison Company GEO Group (December 2025)
  2. Fast Company - Private prison company GEO pivoted to tech, and it's raking in hundreds of millions
  3. Biometric Update - ICE's Expanding Use of Ankle Monitors Ignites Surveillance, Privacy Concerns
  4. CyberScoop - How a private company helps ICE track migrants' every move
  5. Austin Kocher - ICE On My Wrist: Immigrants Will Start Wearing Electronic Monitoring Watches
  6. Jersey Vindicator - ICE taps GEO Group subsidiary to track immigrants in $121 million deal (January 2026)
  7. Bloomberg - ICE Bounty Hunting Push Aided by Geo Group's Surveillance Work (February 2026)
  8. OpenSecrets - Private prison giant GEO Group ramps up lobbying on immigrant surveillance
  9. Business Times - Trump's Border Czar Tom Homan Took Cash from Private Prison Giant Now Raking in $130 Million in ICE Contracts