GEO Group Stock Tanks as Detention Horrors Surface
Shares sink below $19 after scathing reports of abuse and neglect at ICE’s Alexandria deportation hub shake investor confidence.
WASHINGTON — Shares of GEO Group (NYSE: GEO), the nation’s largest private prison and immigrant detention operator, are in freefall as financial woes collide with explosive new allegations of abuse and neglect inside its flagship deportation hub in Louisiana.
The stock closed Tuesday at $18.85, down nearly 3% on the day and 11% in the last two weeks. Year-to-date, GEO has lost almost 22% of its value, now trading about 40% below its 52-week high of $36.46. The selloff, which began with weak earnings guidance earlier this year, has accelerated in the wake of a damning Guardian investigation into GEO’s Alexandria, Louisiana, staging facility — a linchpin of the Trump administration’s mass deportation machine.
Wall Street Worries
Investors began fleeing GEO after back-to-back earnings disappointments in Q1 and Q2 2025. Profits slipped below expectations, with analysts citing ballooning costs and weaker-than-expected growth in electronic monitoring services. The company’s August guidance slashed projections for alternatives-to-detention programs, sparking a 20% plunge.
Now, with Q3 earnings due November 6, analysts warn that any further miss could deepen losses. Technical signals already show the stock trapped in a “wide and falling trend,” with volatility and bearish sentiment dominating trading.
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Inside Alexandria: A “Black Hole”
The financial decline is being compounded by the Guardian’s four-month investigation into GEO’s Alexandria Staging Facility in central Louisiana.
The report paints a chilling portrait of conditions at the privately run site:
Men warehoused in fetid, overcrowded rooms, sometimes with brown, rusty water when showers functioned at all.
Extended detentions beyond the 72-hour legal limit; nearly 1 in 5 detainees were held more than three days, with hundreds locked in for 10 days or more.
Medical neglect and suicide attempts, with 911 records showing detainees collapsing, gasping for oxygen, or attempting to hang themselves.
Waived health standards: Leaked contracts show ICE granted GEO exemptions from required medical screenings just days before federal inspectors arrived.
One detainee, Amilcar Lisser-Posadas, a Honduran father of two U.S. citizen daughters and former DACA recipient, described being locked in Alexandria for 12 days, sick with fever and chest congestion but denied care until just before his deportation flight. “It was just not a place for human beings,” he told The Guardian.
Another, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar on a valid visa, recalled being shackled, isolated, and denied legal access. “At that time in Alexandria,” he said, “I realized there is nothing called rights. It was a real black hole. A real disgrace.”
ICE’s Deportation Hub
Alexandria has become the nerve center of Trump’s deportation agenda. Set within a World War II-era airpark, the GEO-run site is directly connected to runways used by GlobalX, ICE’s largest charter flight contractor. Leaked manifests show more than 20,000 detainees deported through Alexandria in just 100 days earlier this year — an average of nearly 200 per day.
“It is the kind of place where people disappear,” said Nora Ahmed, ACLU of Louisiana legal director, warning the facility is structured to cut off access to lawyers and families.
Despite this, ICE inspectors cleared the facility in February with “no deficiencies,” a finding former DHS Inspector General John Roth blasted as “highly troubling” and lacking credibility.
Political Risk Meets Market Risk
For GEO, the timing could not be worse. The company relies heavily on ICE contracts, which are now under fire from Congress and rights groups alike. With Democrats eyeing cuts to private detention funding and revelations of medical waivers and abuse, analysts warn GEO’s cash flows face structural risk.
The company has pushed back, insisting its services meet or exceed ICE detention standards, and touting four decades of “supporting law enforcement missions.”
Still, the fallout is rattling markets. As one analyst put it bluntly: “This isn’t just a stock problem. It’s a legitimacy problem.”
MY TAKE: The Alexandria revelations give investors new reasons to doubt whether the private prison model can survive the combined weight of scandal, policy risk, and shareholder flight.
And as detainees describe Alexandria as “a place where rights don’t exist,” the story of GEO Group’s stock collapse is no longer just about numbers on a ticker — it’s about the cost of a business built on human misery.
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Where is the oversite of these detention centers!!!!? Something nefarious is going on. Reports of inhumane conditions and treatments are unacceptable!