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Rights & Justice
'Morally Reprehensible': For-Profit Immigrant Detention Centers Exploiting Prison Labor With $1 Per Day Wages
“The dichotomy between the contractors’ profits and the detainees’ pay is outrageous."
May 13, 2026
As President Donald Trump continues his mass detention and deportation agenda and expands the use of privately owned immigrant prisons, with more than 60,000 people detained across the country, the profits of private contractors like the GEO Group and CoreCivic are skyrocketing—and a new report by a government watchdog reveals one method the multibillion-dollar firms have of extracting profits from detainees.
Public Citizen researcher Douglas Pasternak wrote in a report released Wednesday that approximately 50% of immigrants who are detained for more than a few days end up in the government's so-called Voluntary Work Program (VWP), earning just $1 per day—12.5 cents per hour—while they keep the detention centers running.
At facilities like Adelanto Detention Center in Adelanto, California, run by the GEO Group, and CoreCivic's Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, detainees work as many as 14 hours in a day for just $1—cooking, cleaning, performing maintenance work, and completing other labor essential to the facilities' operations—and in many cases are forced to use their meager wages only at commissaries also run by the corporations.
"This entire $1-a-day pay scheme is economically unjustifiable, fundamentally unfair, and morally reprehensible," said Pasternak in a statement.
The companies are notorious for price gouging, forcing the so-called "voluntary worker" to work full-time for 11 days to afford a tube of Sensodyne toothpaste—priced at $11.02 at Stewart Detention Center, compared to just $5.20 on Amazon.
"At these rates, it may take a detainee more than three days of work to purchase a can of tuna fish or more than two days of work to purchase a bar of soap," said Public Citizen.
The business model has saved the contractors millions of dollars and allowed them to reap massive profits.
Former CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger made $7.2 million in compensation last year before retiring, and the company's profits grew from $68.9 million in 2024 to $116.5 million last year. Both CoreCivic and the GEO Group reported well over $2 billion in revenue in 2025.
“The private contractors running immigrant detention centers are pocketing millions of dollars in profits as tens of thousands of detainees struggle to afford to purchase a bar of soap or a tube of toothpaste."
When it was sued over its use of the VWP in Washington State, the GEO Group testified that it would have had to pay 85 full-time employees at the state's minimum wage—$17.13 per hour—if it hadn't used the labor of detainees. Hiring workers would have cost the company over $3 million per year, but instead the GEO Group spent just over $22,000 paying imprisoned immigrants $1 per hour.
“The private contractors running immigrant detention centers are pocketing millions of dollars in profits as tens of thousands of detainees struggle to afford to purchase a bar of soap or a tube of toothpaste,” said Pasternak. “The dichotomy between the contractors’ profits and the detainees’ pay is outrageous."
In the case in Washington state, a court found that the GEO Group owed $17 million in back pay to thousands of detainees and owed nearly $6 million to the state for "unjust enrichment." The company has appealed to the Supreme Court. There are at least six other federal court cases challenging private companies for paying immigrant detainees $1 per day.
The report also describes a nine-bedroom, 11-bathroom, 18,523-square-foot home owned by GEO Group co-founder George Zoley in Boca Raton, Florida—estimated to be worth more than $22.5 million.
"The disparity between Zoley’s wealth and the $1 per day pay to detained immigrants is striking," reads the report. "The tens of thousands of immigrants detained by the US government deserve better than being paid $1 per day, and the federal contractors building an extensive network of detention camps across the country should not be making excessive profits at their expense."
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'Number of People Who Don't Have Enough to Eat' Surging Due to Trump-GOP Aid Cuts
"It cannot be said enough that people aren't being 'lifted' or 'moved off' SNAP—struggling families are losing the help they need to afford groceries because of HR 1's cuts," said one expert.
May 12, 2026
Food banks across the United States are experiencing increased demand not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic as higher consumer prices and food aid cuts enacted by congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump cause pain for millions of vulnerable families.
The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA, or HR 1) passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by Trump last July 4 contains the biggest cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, in the nation's history.
According to US Department of Agriculture data, participation in SNAP dropped by 8% nationwide in the six months following the law's signing. A recent analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that around 2.5 million people have lost food aid since the legislation took effect.
Laura Lester, CEO of Feeding Alabama, told Al.com that the state is "on track to lose up to 100,000 people off of SNAP benefits by the end of this year."
“We are already hearing from those impacted who no longer have access to food,” said Lester. “Homeless children and seniors are the ones who are suffering. We have absolutely seen an increase in the number of people who don’t have enough to eat coming to our pantries.”
The OBBBA contains new qualification requirements for people experiencing homelessness, veterans, former foster youth, and older adults. The Trump administration says the new rules are meant to ensure that only the truly needy receive benefits. However, the more stringent requirements are harming some of the most vulnerable people.
“To see seniors and young women with children lose their benefits, it’s heartbreaking,” Dan Saltzman, president of Dave’s Markets, a Cleveland-area grocery store chain, told Signal Cleveland. Saltzman said his business' revenue from SNAP has declined by about 10% over the past year.
Compliance procedures are proving an exclusionary barrier to qualified aid applicants.
“Tens of thousands of SNAP participants are facing new hurdles just to maintain assistance,” New Jersey Human Services Commissioner Stephen Cha said last week. “Many residents who remain eligible for assistance could still lose coverage or food support because complex paperwork or missed deadlines prevent them from completing required steps."
Kristin Warzocha, CEO of Greater Cleveland Food Bank—which served more than 400,000 people last year—said that she has "talked to quite a number of people lately who are seniors who are struggling to get by with rising prices."
“They’re worried about the cost of groceries. They’re worried because their rent has gone up. And they just can’t make ends meet anymore," she added. "They just can’t do it. So they’re coming here for food.”
Jennie Jean Davidson, executive director at Neighborhood House, a Louisville food bank, told Spectrum News 1 that "honestly, demand for what we do is up in every area."
"We have waiting lists in our child development center and in our youth programming," she explained. "Demand in our food pantry has been going up month-over-month for about three years now and it’s just continuing to climb. We’re seeing a lot of need in the community.”
Trump's tariffs, war of choice on Iran, and attacks on the social safety net are driving up inflation, and household debt, exacerbating the struggles of millions of Americans. While he campaigned on promises to lower prices on "day one," Trump admitted Tuesday that Americans' financial struggles aren't on his mind, "not even a little bit," as he tries to negotiate an end to the war he started with Israel against Iran.
"We're seeing a lot of uneasiness amongst people in general," Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona president and CEO Natalie Jayroe told KGUN on Tuesday. "So many things are changing. Nobody knows when this inflation is going to stop. They don't know when the price of gas is going to start to go down again. We've had cuts in some of the funding that families normally depend on."
“Right now, we're reaching about 6,200 children and we do that primarily through our summer feeding programs that take place in schools and other camps," she added. “So many of our children depend on school breakfast and lunch during the year. In our case here in Southern Arizona and the five counties that we serve, that's 88,000 children."
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AFL-CIO to FIFA: 'Keep ICE Out of World Cup Host Cities' to Protect Workers
"The tactics of discrimination, violence, and intimidation used by immigration agencies to target working people across the country cause fear and chaos in our communities."
May 12, 2026
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler on Monday urged leaders of the International Federation of Association Football, world soccer's governing body, to protect workers by keeping federal immigration enforcement agents away from cities and venues hosting the upcoming FIFA Men's World Cup tournament.
"As we approach the final preparations for the World Cup and workers begin readying stadiums and communities for an influx of visitors, several of our affiliate unions have raised grave concerns over FIFA’s engagement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)," Shuler wrote in a letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and 2026 World Cup chief strategy and planning officer Amy Hopfinger.
"Chief among those concerns is the potential for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other DHS agents to be present at and around the World Cup matches," Shuler continued. "As the AFL-CIO is a founding member of Dignity 2026, a national coalition of labor and grassroots community groups, we know concerns around the possibility of immigration enforcement are wide-reaching."
America’s unions are calling on FIFA leadership to keep ICE out of World Cup host cities during the games.The Trump administration's immigration enforcement poses a serious risk to the thousands of World Cup workers. https://bit.ly/3Pb9lI2
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— AFL-CIO (@aflcio.org) May 11, 2026 at 10:52 AM
Noting that acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has called his agency—and specifically its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division—"a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup," Shuler lamented that "FIFA has largely remained silent about the role ICE will play in the games."
"Given the racial profiling, warrantless arrests, and other unconstitutional tactics the Trump administration is using to detain and deport people with no regard for due process, our affiliate unions are deeply concerned about ICE being engaged for any purpose during the World Cup," she said. "Indeed, some unions have signaled that this would create an unsafe work environment that may require them to take collective action to ensure that no members are put at risk."
Shuler continued:
The tactics of discrimination, violence, and intimidation used by immigration agencies to target working people across the country cause fear and chaos in our communities, and directly affect workers, business operations, and local economies. Consequently, ICE presence in host cities during the games could cause severe disruptions and negatively affect the success of the tournament. We urge FIFA to consider the financial and human impact that collaborating with DHS could have on the working people who make these games possible, not to mention on local businesses, host cities and communities, and FIFA itself. The games should be a welcoming and celebratory event for spectators, workers, and soccer enthusiasts of all backgrounds.
The AFL-CIO president is calling on FIFA leaders to:
- Publicly call on the Trump administration to commit to keeping immigration enforcement agents, particularly ICE, out of host cities;
- Clarify what role DHS will play, with the expectation that any DHS presence at FIFA events be strictly limited to providing operational security; and
- Confirm that the administration will not launch immigration enforcement operations targeting workers, spectators, or the general public anywhere in the host cities.
"Additionally, unions have raised concerns over the accreditation and background check process that FIFA will be using to credential workers during the games," Shuler wrote. "It is our understanding that FIFA will be submitting worker information through an FBI database. We call on FIFA to ensure that unions representing members at World Cup stadiums receive clear answers and open dialogue to all questions about this process."
"Given the ways in which federal agencies are violating workers’ privacy rights to build datasets to support unconstitutional immigration enforcement activity, and FIFA’s relative silence on the scope and implications of these checks, we are asking you to commit to working with unions so that they can fully understand the process to which their members will be subjected and ensure that workers’ privacy and safety are respected," she continued. "Specifically, we seek assurances from FIFA that no information reported in these checks will be shared with any constituent part of DHS that engages in immigration enforcement or used for immigration enforcement purposes."
"Union members working in stadiums, hotels, event production, transportation, and many other industries will be critical to the success of these games. They deserve respect, dignity, and safety on the job so they in turn can provide a safe and welcoming environment for all players and fans," Shuler concluded. "FIFA must be transparent about its plans for engaging with DHS and the administration so that workers can do their jobs without fear and provide the best possible World Cup experience for neighbors and visitors alike."
The US, Canada, and Mexico are jointly hosting the tournament—the first time three nations are doing so—which is set to kick off with group stage matches in Mexico City and Guadalajara on June 11 and Los Angeles and Toronto the following day.
A coalition of more than 120 US-based civil society groups last month issued a travel advisory ahead the tournament over what the ACLU called the “deteriorating human rights situation” in the United States amid the Trump administration’s deadly anti-immigrant crackdown, suppression of free speech, and more.
Citing the “absence of meaningful action and concrete guarantees from FIFA”—world soccer’s governing body—“host cities, or the US government,” the coalition urged “fans, players, journalists, and other visitors traveling to and within the United States” for the tournament to “have an emergency contingency plan.”
The presence of HSI agents, who provided security services for US diplomats during February's Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina Italy, sparked multiple protests in which thousands of people took to the streets of the Lombardian capital to denounce what Milano Mayor Giuseppe Sala called "a militia that kills."
As the tournament kickoff nears, there are also multiple unresolved labor disputes that could lead to strikes. In Inglewood, California, roughly 2,000 UNITE HERE Local 11 food service and hospitality workers at SoFi Stadium are threatening to strike before or during the tournament unless FIFA and venue operators address concerns about working conditions and the ICE threat.
Sheraton Hotel workers in Center City Philadelphia are ready to strike during the World Cup for a fair contract.The hotel is completely booked and workers have been without a contract for over two years now.
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— Sean Kitchen (@seankitchen.bsky.social) May 2, 2026 at 3:55 PM
In Mexico City, transport unions are pushing for improved worker protections ahead of the tournament. Using their leverage ahead of one of the world's premier sporting events, workers have recently secured commitments from the city to raise overtime pay, negotiate permanent contracts, enact anti-harassment protections, and boost workplace safety.
In addition to concerns about workers, some capitalists have warned that the Trump administration's draconian immigration policies and generally unwelcoming vibes could affect their bottom line.
“When you have visitors asking legitimate questions about what their experience will be coming through customs and immigration... those are big impediments to optimizing what should be a home run opportunity for the lodging industry," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said earlier this year.
There has also been considerable controversy surrounding FIFA's much-ridiculed awarding of its inaugural Peace Prize to President Donald Trump amid his administration’s illegal high-seas boat-bombing spree, and just ahead of his Christmas bombing of Nigeria, kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, launch of the US-Israeli war of choice against tournament qualifier Iran, and threats to attack several other countries.
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No Kings Movement and 'All Roads Lead to the South' to Protest GOP Voting Rights Attacks
"The politicians attacking voting rights today are clinging to a shrinking vision of America rooted in fear, exclusion, and minority rule."
May 12, 2026
Republican state lawmakers are seizing on the US Supreme Court's recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act to continue President Donald Trump's gerrymandering spree, including in Alabama, where "All Roads Lead to the South," the No Kings coalition, community members, faith leaders, and other organizations plan to come together on Saturday, May 16, in protest.
They are set to start at 9:00 am CT at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon and the site of Bloody Sunday, "for prayer and remembrance—on sacred ground, in reverence for those who marched in 1965, in gratitude for the moral courage they showed the nation, and in faith that the same spirit that moved them still moves in us."
The organizers then intend to hold a rally at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery from 1:00-5:00 pm. People across the United States outraged by GOP attacks on voting rights are also planning solidarity actions throughout the day.
"Sixty years after Bloody Sunday, we are once again being called to meet this moment with collective action. The attacks on voting rights across the South are not isolated incidents, they are part of a coordinated effort to weaken Black political power," said Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown, co-founders of Black Voters Matter Fund, a leading partner organization of All Roads Lead to the South, in a Tuesday statement.
"But we have faced these challenges before, and we know our power," the pair continued. "Alabama has always been sacred ground in the fight for freedom, and this moment demands that we rise together once again. We are proud to stand with the No Kings coalition and people across the nation to make clear that our communities will not be pushed backward, our voices will not be silenced, and our power will not be denied."
Since Trump returned to office last year, the No Kings movement has organized three national days of action—in June, October, and March. Americans also held thousands of protests nationwide on May Day, or International Workers' Day, earlier this month.
"What is happening right now is deliberate, coordinated, and being driven by Republican politicians committed to abusing power and rigging the system to hold control for themselves and silence Black voters," the No Kings Steering Committee said Tuesday. "They plan on overturning every protection available for Black voters and will not be satisfied until they reinstate every Jim Crow-era law."
"That's why the No Kings coalition is joining in solidarity with All Roads Lead to the South this Saturday in Alabama and across the country for an emergency national protest against the attacks on voting rights by the Supreme Court and the swift effort by Republican-controlled states to disenfranchise millions of Black voters," the committee continued.
On May 16th, join civil and voting rights groups in a National day of Action in Montgomery, Alabama. Go to allroadsleadtothesouth.com for more details. #votingrights #50501movement
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— 50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 (@50501movement.bsky.social) May 9, 2026 at 12:48 PM
GOP state lawmakers in Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas have already responded to demands from Trump and fears of losing a slim majority in the US House of Representatives by redrawing their congressional districts to favor Republicans in the November midterm elections.
Democratic state leaders in California and Virginia have tried to fight the Trump-led GOP's mid-decade redistricting by enacting new voter-approved congressional districts that favor Democrats, though both of those maps face legal challenges. Party leaders in Virginia on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to block a recent ruling against the Democratic effort.
In a case about Louisiana's districts that predated Trump's push, the US Supreme Court last month found that the state map was an "unconstitutional racial gerrymander" and eviscerated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, leading Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to suspend primary elections, even though absentee ballots had already gone out.
Tennessee lawmakers swiftly took advantage of an opportunity from that ruling by targeting their state's only majority-Black congressional district, in Memphis. As Tennesseans sued over the new map on Monday, the US Supreme Court's right-wing justices cleared the way for Alabama legislators to break up their state's majority-Black district.
"The politicians attacking voting rights today are clinging to a shrinking vision of America rooted in fear, exclusion, and minority rule. They are trying to preserve a past this country has already rejected," said the No Kings panel. "In this country, we do not answer to kings—not in the White House and not in our state houses. Power belongs to the people, and we the people will decide."
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