THE DETENTION FILES A public accountability project of LULAC
HUB FILE

The federal checkbook, FY2008 to FY2026.

Every prime contract obligation to The GEO Group, Inc. and CoreCivic, Inc. as named recipients, from the government's own spending database. FY2026 runs through August 31, 2026.

$17.9BCumulative obligations, FY2008 to FY2026: $9.03B CoreCivic, $8.88B GEO
$1.58BFY2026 in 11 months, an all-time record: +43% vs FY2024, +15% vs FY2025
+78%ICE obligations FY2026 ($1.14B) vs FY2024 ($639M); ICE is 44% of the all-time total
$2.63BObligated since Jan 20, 2025: $4.5M a day, up 63% from the prior 20-month pace
$0.0B $0.5B $1.0B $1.5B $2.0B $1.10B FY2024 $1.37B FY2025 $1.58B FY2026 11 months

Obligations by fiscal year, in billions. FY2026 through August 31. FY2024 and FY2025 derived from the stated growth rates.

Agency mix, all-time

ICE$7.84B
U.S. Marshals$4.81B
Bureau of Prisons$3.44B
DOJ detention offices$1.81B

GEO overtook CoreCivic as the larger federal contractor in FY2016 and has led every year since; FY2026 GEO's $976M is the largest single-company year in the file. The Marshals business is the quiet, decades-long base under both companies.

Read with care: this file understates the federal flow. It captures only awards to the two parents by name, so it excludes the county and city pass-through agreements behind Stewart, Eloy, the Louisiana cluster, and others, and excludes GEO's BI Incorporated monitoring business. Obligations are incremental funding actions, not revenue, and exclude state contracts. Source: USAspending.gov full export, retrieved Sept 5, 2026.

HOW AN IDIQ WORKS

Billion-dollar headlines. One-year funding.

The multi-year awards are indefinite-delivery contracts funded one task order at a time. The ceiling is a maximum, not a commitment; the funded amount is the only money that has moved.

Delaney Hall, NJ: reported as 15-year, about $1B
$38.6M funded of $788.7M ceiling (5%); FY2026 tranche runs to Sept 30, 2026
Big Horn, CO: reported as 5-year
$15.7M funded of $528.7M ceiling (3%); first task order Jul 15, 2026 to Jul 8, 2027
Prairie, MN: reported as 5-year
$15.9M funded of $536.2M ceiling (3%); first task order Aug 11, 2026 to Aug 10, 2027

Read: every appropriation is a decision, and every decision is a pressure point. Three renewals land inside 90 days of launch.

INSIDE THE AWARD FILE

Line items that confirm, correct, and warn.

AwardVehicle and periodObligated / ceilingWhat it tells us
Aurora, CO task orderSept 24, 2025 to Oct 15, 2026, under GEO's 2022 IDIQ$73.7M / $73.7MConfirms the court-disclosed Oct 15, 2026 expiration; the renewal decision is weeks out.
Northwest ICE Processing Center (Tacoma) bridgeMay 8 to Oct 27, 2026 task order$63.2M / $63.2MThe Tacoma contract has been extended only to Oct 27, 2026, a second imminent renewal.
Delaney Hall IDIQAwarded Feb 26, 2025; FY2026 funding tranche to Sept 30, 2026$38.6M tranche; $788.7M ceilingThe 15-year deal can be defunded year to year despite the headline term.
The Dec 19, 2026 cliffSingle-year orders funded Jan and Feb 2026, all ending Dec 19, 2026$269.3M combinedAdelanto ($107.7M), Otay Mesa management ($84.7M), and Mesa Verde ($76.9M) come up for refunding the same week, six weeks after the midterm elections.
New USMS Florida detention IDIQ (GEO)Oct 29, 2025 to Oct 31, 2026$52.8M / $526.6MA second agency is building large detention capacity in Florida through GEO; worth a records request.
USMS legacy anchorsGEO Western Region (San Diego) and Robert A. Deyton (GA); CoreCivic Pahrump (NV); 2007 to 2008 awards running to 2028 to 2030$801.6M; $566.4M; $560.1MThe Marshals business is the base under both companies.
Navy WEXMAC 2.2 onboardingCoreCivic (Sept 2025) and GEO (Feb 2026); multiple-award expeditionary vehicle$0 obligated; $110B and $55B shared ceilingsBoth companies are positioned on a rapid-contracting vehicle that could route soft-sided camp work. Nothing funded yet; on the watch list.

Note: 73 new awards have been booked to the two companies since Jan 20, 2025, with $1.4B already obligated on them. Place-of-performance coding in the file is unreliable (the Adelanto order is coded Florida), so facilities are identified from award descriptions. Source: USAspending.gov full export, retrieved Sept 5, 2026.

The record is public. The decisions are dated.

Aurora's contract expires October 15. Tacoma's bridge ends October 27. Three California operations come up for refunding on December 19. Tell the officials who fund them, and the shareholders who finance them, that you are watching.