Look, the numbers here practically tell the story on their own. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement burned through roughly $5.4bn in contracts during Donald Trump's first year back in office, and close to 70% of that — about $3.8bn — ended up with just ten companies. Several had donated heavily to his campaign. That is not an allegation from a pressure group or a think tank trying to make a point; it comes from a forensic breakdown of federal spending records by theProject on Government Oversight, published last week.
The same year, 32 people died inside immigration detention centres. Highest toll in two decades.
Whether those two facts are connected is a question senators are now putting to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in writing. But the overlap sits there, uncomfortable and hard to explain away: the firms collecting billions operate the facilities where people are dying, and the agency's own inspection regime was quietly hollowed out while the contracts ballooned.
The contractor at the top of the pile is CSI Aviation, an Albuquerque-based firm that runs domestic flights and international deportation charters for ICE. CEO Allen Weh, along with his wife and daughter — both corporate officers — donated $460,000 to Trump's 2024 campaign, POGOreported. Days before the election, the company hosted a Trump rally at its facilities.
Their support appears to have paid off. Or rather, the contract numbers suggest it did, though CSI's corporate counsel insisted 'nothing could be further from the truth' when asked if donations influenced awards.
CSI's ICE revenues surged 238% in a single year, climbing from $363.9m to $1.23bn.
Palantir Technologies wasn't far behind. The surveillance and data firm recorded a 297% jump in ICE contract earnings, reaching $81.1m (£67.8m). CEO Alex Karp and adviser Jacob Helberg — who now holds a position in the Trump administration — contributed nearly $3.9m to Trump-aligned political action committees,Migrant Insider reported.
Then there are the private prison giants. GEO Group and CoreCivic each gave $500,000 to Trump's inauguration committee. Both lobbied hard for the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act', the July 2025 law that tripled ICE's budget and made it the most lavishly funded law enforcement agency in the country,the Brennan Centre noted.
Mind you, none of this is illegal. Legal experts have been at pains to stress that contractor donations do not violate federal law. But critics argue the sheer concentration of cash creates a perception of preferential treatment; the kind of thing that erodes public confidence in how billions of taxpayer dollars get spent.
Strip away the contract figures and you are left with a body count.
Source: International Business Times UK
