Investigation: ICE’s Favorite Companies Pumped More Than $12 Million In Political Dollars to Tip the Scale of the Midterms

In late 2024, right before Donald Trump started his second term, the man in charge of Palantir Technologies donated $1 million to the Trump-supporting super political action committee, MAGA, Inc.

Alexander Karp, the executive, later led the company as its predictive software helped select targets for deportation raids, amid harsh targeting of immigrants across the country. 

During the first two years of Trump’s second term, Karp has sent roughly $1.9 million of his own money into largely Republican-aligned PACs and campaigns, an Emancipator analysis of political spending found. 

Palantir was also among the major donors to Trump’s White House ballroom, according to a list obtained by The Washington Post.

But Palantir’s and Karp’s personal donations are just a few examples of how the companies and executives profiting from Trump’s targeting of immigrants have tried to transform money into influence.

An Emancipator investigation traced more than $12 million in combined political spending linked to CoreCivic, Palantir, GEO Group, NANA Regional Corp. and CSI Aviation – some of the companies that have profited most from ICE’s expanded activities since President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office.

These are the companies that built the software ICE uses to target immigrants.  

They arrange the planes used to deport them to other countries. 

They run the large detention facilities that hold them. 

The donations noted here appear legal. By law, federal contractors can’t give directly to political campaigns. But through individuals who work for them, and through affiliated PACs, they can still influence electoral campaigns. 

Prior reporting has noted that several of these companies have lobbied on bills that support ICE spending.

The Emancipator found that the companies, while largely contributing to support Republicans, also sent money to Democrats. 

In some cases, the money flowed in states with competitive congressional and Senate races and where the companies either have detention facilities or are active. 

To track the flow of political money, The Emancipator used a list of companies based on prior reporting from The Project on Government Oversight. We then independently examined affiliated PACs and federal election contribution data for executives of the companies, where we could find receipts and 527 disclosures pulled from ProPublica’s 527 Explorer. 

We compared those receipts (excluding donations smaller than $350) to data that tracked ICE deportation centers from the data firm Relevant Research. 

At least 10 executives — including some former executives — connected to the ICE-aligned companies have directed more than $9.7 million in political money since 2025, The Emancipator found.

For example, Allen Weh, the CEO of CSI Aviation, gave more than $250,000. 

The company is behind many of ICE’s deportation flights. 

Weh’s money flowed to places including the Republican National Committee and Republican-aligned super PAC “Our Values.” In addition, Weh donated to Republican Senate campaigns such as Jon Husted in Ohio and Thomas Cotton in Arkansas.

The Emancipator reached out to ICE, all the ICE-connected companies and politicians named as beneficiaries in our investigation.

As the number of people in detention swells, the companies enabling Trump’s immigration crackdown have amassed record profits.

Those companies have used their money to put their fingers on the scale of American politics ahead of the midterms.

CoreCivic

Political organization tax disclosures revealed that more than $2.5 million flowed over the last two years from CoreCivic, which is one of the nation’s largest privately run detention companies and runs 23 ICE facilities, according to tracking data. 

The money represents political spending noted in campaign finance receipts and 527 disclosures for a PAC and executives affiliated with the company.

CoreCivic sent $675,000 to the Republican Governors Association over the last two years, a 527 disclosure revealed.

Those same years, CoreCivic sent $330,000 to the Democratic Governors Association.

Governors hold significant power over detention centers and state laws, and those groups send support to party-aligned governors.

CoreCivic sent $135,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee, the biggest organization supporting state-level Republican politicians across the country. 

A little more than $200,000 moved through CoreCivic’s PAC.

The PAC sent the most number of donations to places including Georgia, where tracking data shows they run an ICE facility, Texas, where they run seven facilities, and Tennessee, where the company is headquartered. 

Direct contributions from PACs to specific candidates are capped by election law. 

CoreCivic’s PAC sent maxed-out donations – $5,000 – to both U.S. Senate and U.S. House campaigns in Montana, Virginia and Arizona.

Some beneficiaries of the PAC included Michael Whatley’s Senate campaign in North Carolina, as well as to Republican-aligned PACs including National Republican Senatorial Committee, Fund for America’s Future and Texas First.

CoreCivic runs Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, Montana, and South Raleigh Reentry Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to its website. The company is connected to two detention centers in Arizona, according to tracking data.

CoreCivic contributed $5,000 to the campaign of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

While Maine recently enacted “ICE Out of Maine” at the state level, Collins has drawn sharp criticism on immigration. 

“Collins strongly opposes dismantling the lawless agency that functions like President Trump’s personal paramilitary force,” Maine AFL-CIO wrote in a recent article about Collins’ connection to the companies, adding: “That isn’t surprising since she has received over $130,000 from top ICE contractors — including Palantir Technologies, CoreCivic and the GEO Group — that are profiting off Trump’s vicious mass deportation policies.” 

CoreCivic’s executives also contributed to candidates. 

Lucibeth Mayberry, CoreCivic’s current CEO, sent a small donation of $500 in support of Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who is running for re-election.

Meanwhile, Damon Hininger, the company’s former CEO, moved more than $1 million. Hininger sent nearly $660,000 to the Republican National Committee over the last two years and more than $100,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

Hininger gave $25,000 to support Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s running for the Senate. 

Hininger also gave smaller donations to support Michael Alfonso, a Republican congressional candidate in Wisconsin who is also the son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary and former Rep. Sean Duffy, as well as Senate re-election campaigns for Sullivan in Alaska and Susan Collins in Maine.

Patrick Swindle, a former CEO and president, sent money that supported Sullivan’s bid to return to the Senate from Alaska and Matt Van Epps’ congressional re-election campaign in Tennessee.

Palantir Technologies

As a data platform provider that ICE uses across the country, Palantir directed nearly $8.3 million across executive spending and its PAC to lawmakers across both the political spectrum and the country.

The bulk of that political spending – more than $8 million dollars – came from the company’s executives. 

In the last couple of years, Peter Thiel, co-founder and board chairman of Palantir Technologies, has sent a little more than $3.2 million to Republican-aligned campaigns, candidates and PACs, federal election receipts show. 

Thiel has previously expressed a belief that the extension of welfare benefits and the voting franchise since 1920, when women became legally eligible to vote, has “rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.”

Thiel was also an early and key supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 race, and served on the 2016 presidential transition team. Though he had reportedly intended to “sit out” the 2024 election, Thiel gave more than $1.7 million that cycle, according to analysis of Federal Election Commission records by Ballotopedia. 

In February, Thiel sent his largest single amount of money over the last couple of years — $1.5 million — to the Club for Growth Action, a super PAC affiliated with the Republicans. Thiel’s second-largest move of money this cycle, $852,200, went to Grow the Majority, a fundraising committee affiliated with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

In 2025, Thiel sent $10,000 donations, the limit under election law, to Republican funds in Alaska, Maine, New Mexico, Montana, Michigan, Iowa, Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New York. 

He sent money directly to campaigns as well.

Karp, the CEO, sent more than $1.9 million overall to support mostly Republican candidates, though he has helped add to Democrats’ political war chests.

A few weeks before Abigail Spanberger’s election to Virginia’s governorship, Karp, CEO of Palantir, sent $10,000 to the Democratic Party of Virginia. 

Last year, Karp transferred $88,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main channel for retaining Republican control over the Senate. The money was largely meant for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, according to memo notes.

This January, Karp sent $100,000 to Americans 4 Security PAC. 

CREW filed complaints with the federal tax and election agencies accusing Americans 4 Security PAC’s social welfare organization of acting as a “political group in disguise” last year. CREW called for a federal investigation into the group for skirting federal disclosure rules.

Palantir chief technology officer, Shyam Sankar, had more than $2.8 million in receipts, flowing to many of the same Republican-aligned causes and campaigns.

A smaller amount flowed from another executive, Akash Jain, who sent $25,000 to the Democratic Governors Association in June, according to a 527 disclosure. 

The company’s PAC sent a little less than $100,000 to both Democrat and Republican groups and campaigns over the last two years. The donations leaned Republican.

The PAC money moved to a range of candidates.

That included Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, a key decision-maker in how much money agencies get.

That included Cornyn, of Texas, a state where many of ICE’s processing and detention facilities are based. He sits on the Judiciary Committee’s Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee. Palantir has substantial government contracts to provide ICE with data services and has raised significant privacy concerns for critics. 

That included Sullivan, R-Alaska, who also received donations from PACs affiliated with other companies that profit from ICE.  

Palantir’s PAC also made contributions for the last two years to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as “With Honor,” a PAC that describes its purpose as fighting “political polarization.”

GEO Group

GEO Group, which runs private prisons and detention facilities, operates 28 ICE facilities, in states including Texas, Georgia and California. 

At least two of the facilities are in battleground states in Michigan and Pennsylvania. 

Executives and a PAC affiliated with the company moved roughly $1.5 million across the country so far during Trump’s second term. 

More than a half-million of that moved through its PAC, and nearly a quarter-million through its executives.

George Zoley, CEO and founder of GEO Group, has a few dozen election receipts indicating he’s given $210,000 across a sweep of Republican campaigns. 

That money flowed to re-election campaigns including Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida and Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey, Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, Rep. Don Bacon in Nebraska, Rep. Ken Calvert and Rep. David Valadao in California, Rep. Rob Whitman in Virginia and Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin.

In Pennsylvania, where GEO Group runs a processing center,  money flowed to help fund the re-election coffers of Rep. Scott Perry, Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr., Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Ryan Mackenzie.

Over the last two years, political donation receipts show that GEO Group sent $375,000 dollars to the Republican Governors Association, nearly $150,000 to the Republican National Committee through its PAC and $50,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association, as noted in a 527 disclosure. 

Its largest donation was to the American Liberty Foundation, a fund that describes itself as advancing “conservative values.” A PAC affiliated with GEO gave that fund a quarter-million dollars in a single donation last year. 

GEO Group-aligned money was also sent to Republican PACs and into states where the group works with ICE.

For example, the group’s PAC sent tens of thousands of dollars into Arizona and Oklahoma.

Oklahoma appears to have been a target area for the group’s donations. In that state, the group also sent money to Republican campaigns supporting state representatives Tim Turner, Josh West, state Rep. Steve Bashore, Trey Caldwell, Nick Archer, and state senators Todd Gollihare, Chuck Hall and Kristen Thompson. They also gave in support of Jon Echols’ state attorney general run. 

In May of this year, GEO Group’s PAC gave $2,000 to Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts’s re-election campaign. 

GEO Group’s PAC sent a couple of contributions to the campaign of Collins, R-Maine. 

Over the last two years, the PAC sent $5,000 to Rep. Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee for Iowa’s open Senate seat, an election considered a “toss-up” by the Cook Report. 

GEO Group is headquartered in Florida, which has an “anti-Sanctuary City” law that punishes cities for refusing to cooperate with ICE. Those laws make it a crime for someone who’s been deported or denied entry to set foot in the state. 

According to campaign election receipts, the GEO Group PAC sent $10,000 this year to support the congressional run of Republican María Elvira Salazar in Florida. 

The company runs three detention centers in Florida, including at least one linked to ICE, though not in Salazar’s South Florida district.

NANA Regional Corp.

A Native Alaskan company, NANA Regional Corporation profits from selling security services to ICE. 

The group sent the least amount of money.

Over the last couple of years, NANA’s PAC sent only a little over $50,000 to politicians and political groups, with its executives and 527 receipts not showing significant spending.

While the company sent less money comparatively, it is one of the companies noted for profiting the most from ICE’s crackdown and it sent money to high-profile political players through its PAC. 

For instance, a few weeks before Markwayne Mullin became Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — a PAC connected to NANA Regional Corporation sent a committee connected to him $1,500. Prior to his DHS role, Mullin was a senator from Oklahoma, elected in 2022.

“As Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin complies with all ethics and conflict of interest rules,” a spokesperson for DHS wrote in response to an email from The Emancipator asking about the money.

NANA Regional provides security services at the infamous Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba.

A subsidiary held by the company won a more than $163 million contract during the Biden administration for “unarmed guard services” at the Migrant Operations Center there, as noted by state reporting. 

Though Trump has announced he would detain 30,000 immigrants, federal documents show that there are far more people assigned to guard immigrants held at the center at the infamous naval base than there are detainees, according to CBS News. In May, there were only a half-dozen Haitian immigrants being held at the base, per CBS News.

NANA’s PAC also sent $1,000 to a committee for Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, who’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

The appropriations committee is crucial in determining how much money federal agencies, like Homeland Security, get.

The most consistent beneficiaries were Alaskan politicians, including Rep. Nick Begich. 

Indeed, the PAC donated to both sitting senators in the state, where ranked-choice voting has reportedly caused worries for Republicans over whether they can hold both Senate seats.

NANA sent six contributions in support of Sen. Sullivan, totaling $7,000, and seven in support of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, totaling $6,000.

The PAC also made three contributions to Mike Rogers, who’s running for Senate in Michigan, totaling $4,500.  

In April, NANA Regional Corporation’s PAC moved $5,000 to Pineapple PAC. That is a Democrat leadership PAC affiliated with Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono. It had sent $1,000 the year before.

There is a federal detention center in Honolulu used by ICE, though Hirono has publicly criticized mass deportation programs. She has compared the detentions to “Japanese Internment” during the Second World War. 

“We cannot have a federal agency that acts in such a lawless way,” Hirono said in a video explaining her vote against an increase in ICE funding in February. In the video, Hirono called for “guardrails” including bodycams, no masks and stricter warrant requirements.

Big profits, big concerns

CoreCivic runs 23 ICE detention facilities, according to Relevant Research, some in key battleground states like Texas.

The Tennessee-based company has raked in $684.9 million in revenue during the first three months of this year alone. 

That was a 27.3% increase from that same quarter the previous year, according to financial documents.

CoreCivic also sold four detention centers to the federal government for about $2.2 billion earlier this year.

In the first half of this year, GEO Group netted “revenues of $1.44 billion,” a notable increase over the previous year, recent financial documents show.

The company also has hip-deep ties to the Trump administration.

Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan contracted for GEO Group. Trump’s former attorney general Pam Bondi was a lobbyist for them. And, acting director of ICE David Venturella served as an executive for the company, as noted in prior reporting. 

Bondi drew rebuke from the Senate Judiciary Committee for not disclosing her connection to the company as a “conflict of interest.” 

GEO Group has called on the Supreme Court to include government contractors under “sovereign immunity” protections, which would shield the company from lawsuits over whether it’s used detainees for unpaid labor, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

CSI Aviation has netted contracts worth more than a billion dollars for running flights for the agency at a time when the country is increasing so-called “third-party deportations,” removing immigrants to countries to which they are not connected.

NANA, the Alaskan Native corporation, offers security services.

By 2024, NANA was making $2.8 billion in revenue, with part of that coming from the subsidiary that handles ICE contracts.

Despite the profits, accusations of human rights abuses have made working with ICE controversial among some shareholders, leading to some calls for NANA’s divestment.

Palantir’s role in the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps has also been profitable. 

“We generated $1.9 billion in revenue for the second quarter of the year — another record in our company’s two decades of operations, reflecting a 93% growth rate over the same period the year before,” wrote Palantir CEO Karp in an August letter. 

That growth was driven by its U.S. operations, which more than doubled their revenue compared to the year before, per financial documents released by the company.

Masked immigration agents have swept American streets and have conducted raids, catching hundreds of American citizens in the dragnets. ICE shootings have left six dead, including three citizens. 

Civil rights groups have pointed the finger, at least partly, at these companies for making it possible.

Palantir, for instance, is crucial for ICE’s data systems, which allow agents to track down people using sensitive data and select “target-rich” areas for raids. 

Prior reporting has shown that this likely incorporates data from a number of dubious sources, including the purchase of data a law enforcement agency would normally need a warrant to obtain, as well as sensitive health information and data taken off phones agents have seized, including data about American citizens. 

Palantir has characterized its work as unusually sensitive to human rights concerns, and argues that it is proactive about protecting rights. 

“We were founded with the goal to enable Western democracies and open societies to harness data in better protecting their citizens without compromising the civil liberties of the people they seek to protect,” Palantir’s human rights policy reads. 

“Try as we might, or any other entity operating in rights-impacting spaces will attest, we must operate in a world filled with institutions making decisions every day around human rights principles that are inherently in tension with one another,” Courtney Bowman, Palantir’s global director of privacy and civil liberties engineering, wrote to Electronic Frontier Foundation, a longstanding privacy rights advocacy group, in March.

The letter responded to questions about whether Palantir’s connection to ICE violated its own human rights principles. 

Privacy and civil rights watchdogs, and critical press, have described the company as the “engine for Trump’s deportation machine,” noting that it raises concerns over a lack of transparency and potential investigative uses of AI. 

Critics have blasted Karp’s recent book as an example of “technofacism” because they allege it lays out a justification for weaponizing AI. 

EFF, the privacy watchdog, suggested that Palantir has sidestepped thorny questions, including those about whether the company’s tools enable racist profiling by ICE.  

ICE has targeted Latinos with no criminal record in its sweeps, per analysis from human rights groups.

“At the end of the day, ultimate responsibility for the Trump Administration’s ICE kidnapping campaign lies with the Trump Administration itself,” the ACLU wrote in March: “But the stench of the campaign’s cruel, brutal, and lawless character inevitably carries over to any company that, like Palantir, participates in facilitating those constitutional and human rights violations and plays a key role in carrying it out.”