The man who built America's largest private immigration detention empire arrived at Ellis Island as a three-year-old Greek immigrant in 1953 and has spent the past four decades profiting from the system that processes people who follow the same path.
George Christopher Zoley, founder of The GEO Group, is 76 years old, holds a doctorate in Public Administration, and runs a publicly traded company that reported a record £193 million ($254 million) in profit for 2025. His facilities now hold tens of thousands of ICE detainees across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. His personal fortune, according to Bloomberg estimates, has grown by approximately £38 million ($50 million) since Donald Trump won the presidential election in November 2024 and now stands at £231 million ($304 million).
That wealth has accelerated rapidly as the Trump administration has driven one of the largest expansions of immigration detention in American history. GEO Group sits at the centre of that expansion, holding contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds with federal agencies and drawing scrutiny from state attorneys general, House Democrats and immigrant rights groups over conditions inside its facilities.
From Immigrant to Detention Mogul
Zoley was born on 7 February 1950 in Florina, a small town in northwestern Greece, in a house without plumbing or electricity. His family's circumstances were modest. In 1953, when Zoley was three years old, his mother Anastassia and his five-year-old brother Elias sailed to New York and were processed through Ellis Island.
His mother was listed as a US citizen on the ship's manifest, and the family subsequently settled in Copley, Ohio, where Zoley attended public school at Copley High School. He later described the journey in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security on 13 July 2020, saying: 'Fortunately, in 1953 my family received approval to immigrate to the United States where we traveled by ship landing in New York City and where we were processed through Ellis Island.'
Zoley went on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in Public Administration from Florida Atlantic University and a Doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. He also served for seven years on the Board of Trustees of Florida Atlantic University, including a term as chairman. In 1984, he founded the company that would become GEO Group.
He took it public in 1994, received GEO's first federal immigration detention contract in Aurora, Colorado, in 1987, and has served as chairman and chief executive at various points over four decades. In 2002, the same year he was named chairman, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, awarded to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to American society.
Not far from Ellis Island, the “Golden Door” for 12 million immigrants, things are looking up for a growth industry in today’s America: prisons.
— 🌍 Breaking News of the Day (@BNOfTheDay) May 11, 2025
Immigrants are good business for the US prison-industrial complex these days, and few are profiting more than George Zoley, the… pic.twitter.com/lDFDmKfbxh
Zoley's personal life has mirrored the company's financial trajectory. He married Donna Pappas in 1970 and the couple live in a 13,000-square-foot mansion in Boca Raton, Florida, with nine bedrooms and twelve bathrooms. In August 2024, he purchased more than 250,000 shares of GEO Group stock, spending approximately £2.3 million ($3 million). The value of those shares more than doubled following Trump's election victory.
Financial Machine and Trump-Era Contracts
GEO Group's financial performance under Trump's second term has been exceptional by any measure. According to the company's SEC filings and fourth-quarter earnings release, the company reported a record £193 million ($254 million) in profit for 2025 and secured approximately £395 million ($520 million) in new or expanded contracts in that year alone. That figure represents the largest single-year business expansion in GEO Group's history, according to Zoley's own statements to investors.
The Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, illustrates the scale of the opportunity. On 27 February 2025, GEO Group signed a 15-year contract with ICE to operate the 1,000-bed facility, which is expected to generate more than £46 million ($60 million) in annual revenue at full occupancy. Over the contract's full term, the total value approaches £760 million ($1 billion).
Additional contracts followed in quick succession, including a two-year deal for the 1,800-bed North Lake Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, expected to generate more than £65 million ($85 million) annually at full occupancy. Zoley told investors in a February 2025 earnings call: 'We believe our company faces an unprecedented opportunity at this time to play a role in supporting President Trump's new administration policy.'
Beyond its US operations, GEO Group manages facilities in Australia, the United Kingdom and South Africa, and operates a migrant detention facility at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Its services extend beyond detention to include prisoner transportation, electronic monitoring technology, privatised healthcare for detainees and financing and construction for new correctional facilities.
Delaney Hall, Legal Action and the Conditions Allegations
The Delaney Hall facility in Newark has become the sharpest point of public controversy in GEO Group's current expansion. Reports from inside the facility, contested by GEO Group and the Department of Homeland Security, have alleged inadequate food, poor medical care and overcrowding. A hunger strike was reported from inside the facility in late May 2026, and protests outside Delaney Hall drew law enforcement responses involving tear gas and batons.
Newark filed a lawsuit against GEO Group in April 2025, alleging the company had reopened and modified the facility without securing required state permits. The State of New Jersey subsequently filed its own lawsuit seeking access for state health inspectors, with Governor Sherrill saying: 'If the GEO Group, with a £760 million ($1 billion) government contract, has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump Administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access.'
The federal government called the lawsuit 'frivolous.' A federal judge referred Newark's case to mediation in May 2026, with a deadline of 15 June 2026.
In his 2020 congressional testimony, Zoley told lawmakers: 'My own immigrant story has shaped the core values that have guided my entire life and career, which include the principle of never placing profit above the value of people.' In response to CNN's reporting on the gap between that statement and the conditions allegations, GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said the company was 'proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.'
George Zoley crossed through Ellis Island as a child fleeing poverty in Greece; the business he built now incarcerates people who make the same crossing, and it has never been more profitable.
