A nonprofit investigation has exposed financial ties between Rep. Jim Jordan and Geo Group, the private prison company that operates immigration detention centers across the country and has emerged as one of the biggest winners under the Trump administration's hardline immigration crackdown.
The American Liberty Foundation, a political action committee linked to Jordan, received $250,000 in undisclosed donations from Geo Group last year, according to a report by Pogo Investigates. The transfer occurred just 11 days after Congress passed legislation that tripled the federal budget for immigration enforcement to $170 billion.
Federal law prohibits government contractors like Geo Group from making such political contributions. The company's own PAC did not disclose the donation, while Jordan's foundation did, creating a legal discrepancy that has drawn scrutiny from campaign finance watchdogs. The Campaign Legal Center has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging Geo Group violated federal law.
"A federal contractor is not permitted to contribute funds to a Super PAC," said Nick Schwellenbach, the author of the Pogo report. "Both entities have legal obligations to disclose. This raises a lot of questions about the broader universe of dark money contributions from Geo Group or other private prison companies."
The financial relationship reflects a deeper alignment between the Ohio congressman and an industry that has profited enormously from Trump's return to power. ICE provides 41 percent of Geo Group's revenue. Under Biden, the company posted a net income of $31.9 million in 2024. Under Trump, that figure jumped to $254.3 million the following year.
Geo Group has landed new contracts worth up to $520 million in annualized revenues since Trump took office, including a $60 million deal for skip tracing services designed to locate undocumented immigrants. The company has reopened 6,000 detention beds across New Jersey, Michigan, and Georgia that had previously been shuttered.
Yet conditions at the 52 detention centers Geo Group operates for ICE have drawn repeated criticism. Detainees at Delaney Hall in New Jersey launched a hunger strike last month to protest inadequate living conditions and alleged denial of medical care. New Jersey has sued the company seeking inspection access. In Michigan, families have reported verbal abuse from staff and restrictions on visiting detained relatives.
Some advocates suggest poor conditions are intentional, designed to pressure immigrants into self-deporting. Pam Bondi, Trump's newly confirmed attorney general, previously served as a lobbyist for Geo Group before joining the administration.
Jordan, a 10-term congressman representing west-central Ohio, has been a consistent Trump loyalist. He voted for the legislation that expanded ICE funding and mounted an aggressive campaign to challenge the 2020 election results. His congressional district has been heavily gerrymandered to favor conservative voters, though he faces a Democratic and Independent challenger in the November election.
Repeated requests for comment from Geo Group, Jordan's office, and his PAC went unanswered. The American Liberty Foundation's websites provide no contact information, though reports indicate former Jordan congressional staffers operating the entity manage it from Columbus.
Josh Kolasinski, a small business owner running against Jordan as a Democrat, characterized the donation as evidence of corruption. "It's proof that he is in favor of incarceration that is for profit," Kolasinski said. "It's one of the things that is wrong with the system."
Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, emphasized the broader problem. "Dark money is an incredibly significant problem in our elections," Ghosh said, noting that over $1.9 billion in undisclosed funds flowed into the 2024 election cycle.
The intersection of Jordan's political influence and Geo Group's expansion raises concerns among legal experts about conflicts of interest in immigration policy. As a federal contractor barred from political contributions, Geo Group's apparent willingness to funnel money through intermediaries suggests awareness of legal restrictions the company may have deliberately circumvented.
Author James Rodriguez: "Jordan's PAC collected a quarter-million from an outfit that profits directly from his votes, and nobody's willing to say a word about it."
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