A new Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on this site in Conroe, Texas, will house up to 1,000 immigrants at a cost of $44 million a year to U.S. taxpayers.
Credit: John Burnett/NPR

The Trump administration wants to expand its network of immigrant jails. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has called for five new detention facilities to be built and operated by private prison corporations across the country. Critics are alarmed at the rising fortunes of an industry that had fallen out of favor with the previous administration.

The Joe Corley Detention Facility is a sprawling complex surrounded by shiny concertina wire located in Conroe, Texas — about an hour north of Houston.

ICE spends more than $2 billion a year on immigrant detention through private jails like this one.

The Corley facility is owned by GEO Group, the nation’s largest private prison company.

ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service pay GEO $32 million a year to house, feed and provide medical care for […]