The Business of Border Fear
What Trump’s immigration policy really fuels—and who’s cashing in
iStock Credit: JCM Jeans
Let’s be honest: Donald Trump’s immigration policy was never just about “protecting the border.” It was about building a machine—one powered by fear, funded by taxpayers, and steered by private profit.
And that machine? It’s still running.
💰 The Billion-Dollar Detention Industry
Here’s what most people don’t see: every day, the U.S. government pays an average of $168 per adult immigrant detained. Multiply that by 40,000 detainees (a conservative estimate), and you’re looking at $6.7 million per day—nearly $2.5 billion a year—flowing into the pockets of publicly traded prison corporations like CoreCivic and GEO Group.
These companies aren’t just passive recipients of government contracts. They lobby for stricter immigration laws, longer detention periods, and increased enforcement. Why? Because every extra day behind bars means more money for shareholders.
It’s not about border security. It’s about enriching private corporations and outsourcing cruelty to regimes with no accountability.
It’s not fiscally conservative. It’s a massive taxpayer-funded subsidy to an industry that thrives on human suffering.
It’s not about safety. It’s about fear-based politics, where the illusion of control masks a deeply corrupt system.
This isn’t border security. It’s a business model.
🌍 Outsourcing Detention, Exporting Abuse
The U.S. is now paying El Salvador $6 million to detain just 300 migrants, many of whom aren’t even Salvadoran. That’s about $55 per person per day, paid to a prison system with a well-documented record of torture, extrajudicial killings, and inhumane conditions.
Even more disturbing: the U.S. has attempted to deport migrants to countries like Libya, where the State Department itself warns of slavery, torture, and lawlessness. These are places Americans are told not to travel to—yet we’re sending vulnerable people there under the guise of “enforcement.”
This isn’t policy. It’s cruelty outsourced.
But for those who do admire his “tough” stance, I ask you to look deeper.
This isn’t about sovereignty. It’s about subsidizing private prisons and outsourcing human rights violations. It’s not fiscally conservative. It’s not morally defensible.
🧠 Final Thought
Trump’s immigration policy isn’t about safety—it’s about who gets paid to build the cage. It’s a system that turns fear into funding and suffering into stock dividends.
If we care about justice, transparency, and human dignity, we must stop pretending that this is about protecting borders. It’s about protecting profits.