California Lawmakers Raise Alarms After Private Prison Official Named Acting ICE Chief

A former GEO Group executive is expected to serve as the next acting chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, revitalizing concerns from California lawmakers and immigration activists over conflicts of interest between private prison companies and high-level Trump administration officials.

David Venturella, who previously worked for the agency under the Obama and Bush administrations, and has spent the last year overseeing lucrative contracts between ICE and detention facilities, will replace Todd Lyons at the end of the month.

“Donald Trump is now moving to put his out-of-control ICE agency in the hands of yet another acting director — and this time, one with concerning ties to the private detention industry,” California Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement. “Appointing a former GEO Group executive and ally of Stephen Miller only deepens our concerns about conflicts of interest, the expansion of for-profit detention facilities, and the inexcusable deaths that continue to mount.”

ICE has been rapidly growing its footprint since the Trump administration took office last year, leasing properties across the country and opening new detention facilities, including two operated by GEO Group in California.

Activists in the state have raised alarms about possible further expansion — including at the site of a shuttered East Bay women’s prison and in Santa Clara County near Gilroy, where the Department of Homeland Security leased 24 acres of land last January, the San José Spotlight first reported.

In July 2025, the agency was granted $75 billion in new funding, more than half of which is earmarked for expanding detention capacity.

Venturella left GEO Group in late 2023 and has been working as an advisor aiding ICE’s rapid expansion, which has included multiple new contracts with GEO Group, one of the agency’s largest private prison contractors. Generally, government employees are barred from participating in contract deals that involve their former employers for a year, but The Washington Post reported that Venturella was exempted from the ethics rule.

In March, Democratic lawmakers raised corruption concerns over his and other senior officials’ ties to immigration contractors. Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, was also previously an advisor for GEO Group.

“The secretive and uncompetitive nature of ICE’s warehouse contracting not only risks wasting billions in taxpayer dollars but also triggers corruption concerns — particularly because some senior Trump Administration officials have close ties to immigration contractors that could profit from the warehouse system,” more than 50 U.S. Representatives, including South Bay Rep. Zoe Lofgren, wrote in a letter to the CEO of private prison company CoreCivic.

Stacy Suh, the program director of Detention Watch Network, a national group working to abolish immigration detention, said that there is a “revolving door” between ICE and the private prison industry that raises questions of influence over contracts.

“Venturella has spent his entire career on expanding immigration detention,” Suh told KQED. “I think it shows this conflict of interest where GEO Group and all these other private contractors are just so excited to cash in on this detention expansion plan and have an industry insider be at the helm of ICE.”

GEO Group announced in February that 2025 was its “most successful year for new business,” contracting with ICE to open four new detention centers and expanding other transportation and case management services for the agency. In April, it said first-quarter revenue was up 17%, to more than $700 million.

“Venturella’s intimate knowledge of ICE will likely yield another spike of ICE detention facility openings in the coming months as the agency operates with impunity and unprecedented funding,” Silky Shah, Detention Watch Network’s executive director, said in a statement.

Venturella is expected to take over as ICE’s chief on June 1, when Lyons retires. Since 2017, the agency has been led by officials serving as “acting” director, avoiding the Senate confirmation process.