Readout of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement meeting with GEO Group

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief of Staff Michael Lumpkin met with representatives from the GEO Group yesterday to discuss detention operations. Partnerships with private detention contractors such as the GEO Group are essential. They enable ICE to focus on enforcing immigration laws in the U.S. interior, which require the agency to detain noncitizens who pose public safety or national security threats and those who must be detained by law. Immigration detention is not punitive. Instead, it focuses on furthering noncitizens’ immigration proceedings or, if ordered by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, removal from the United States.

ICE routinely adjusts its detention operations based on evolving mission requirements. The agency’s ability to detain and remove noncitizens is directly dependent on bed space availability. The agency continues to modernize its processes and realize cost efficiencies while working with Department of Homeland Security leadership and Congress to secure resources for detention.

ICE regularly meets with stakeholders nationwide, including state, local, tribal and territorial governments, elected officials and law enforcement professionals. Agency representatives also meet with private-sector entities, faith-based and activism-based organizations, and colleges and universities to help dispel myths and ensure future decisions that fall under ICE’s purview are fact-based and data-driven, humane and effective.