Trump Just Handed Mass Detention Policy to a Private Prison Executive

THE NEW HEAD of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be David Venturella, a former executive of the GEO Group, which I think of as the Coca-Cola of immigrant detention—the ubiquitous, hugely profitable, default option wherever you go. (That would make CoreCivic, America’s second-largest provider, the Pepsi of private prisons.)

Trump’s appointment of a veteran of the prison-industrial complex is a shocking display of how intertwined private industry and government bureaucracy have become over the last sixteen months. It also shines a light on the state of the Department of Homeland Security and hints at the authority (or lack thereof) of its new leader, Markwayne Mullin.

But first, let’s chat about Venturella.

This isn’t one of those things where, as part of a long career, Venturella held an executive post a dozen years ago.

No. From 2012 to 2023, Venturella was a senior vice president of a company that holds $1 billion in ICE contracts. According to the SEC, even after retiring from the GEO Group, Venturella continued to advise on new and existing contracts, serving as a paid consultant until January 2025. What ever could have happened in January 2025 that led Venturella to give up this gig?

And, how unusual is this?

Well, ethics rules bar federal employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employers. But the Washington Post reports the Trump administration conveniently granted Venturella a waiver. Within two weeks of leaving his consulting role at GEO Group, Venturella joined ICE as a senior adviser. At the time, ICE reassured the press that Venturella would have “no role in reviewing, approving, or recommending contracts.” If that state of affairs was ever true, it’s over now.

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a staunch critic of ICE and of Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, said that only a few years ago it would have been “unimaginable” for a former private prison executive to oversee the awarding of contracts to his former employer.

“Private detention centers that contract with ICE will now run ICE. That’s probably the easiest way to explain it,” Ramirez told me. “This administration is trying to push and push and push and see how far they can go. And what they’ve proven is they can go pretty damn far. You’re talking about a private prison company profiting off of the pain of immigrants now having their employee be the new head of ICE.”

Ramirez added that Venturella’s appointment tells Donald Trump’s campaign and inauguration donors—like GEO Group and CoreCivic—they have the green light to maximize their profits, minimize expenses, and worsen conditions at detention centers because, at the end of the day, their people are now calling the shots on contracts.

Readers who have seen the vast corruption of the Trump administration may resign themselves to thinking this is all unsurprising. After all, elections have consequences. The New York Times reported Venturella favors quieter immigration enforcement than the carnival of horrors Noem, Corey Lewandowski, and little angry Greg Bovino brought to town. But here’s one story about him worth telling.

Last summer, Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and longtime Trump friend (who actually introduced him to Melania), needed a favor. In order to win custody of his son, Zampolli wanted his Brazilian ex-girlfriend, in jail for fraud charges, to be deported. No biggie. Zampolli reached out to the Trump administration, and an ICE official scrambled to get it done. The official called the Miami ICE field office telling them it was important to someone close to Trump.

That ICE official serving as Trump’s hatchet man that day was David Venturella.