Democrats Blasted Federal Detention Operations Despite Accepting Donations From ICE Contractor

Two organizations dedicated to electing Democrats received between them hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from a company which extensively contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, POLITICO reported in its Saturday edition of “Playbook.”

The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association (DLGA) together received a six-figure haul from CoreCivic, a Tennessee-based private prison company and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contractor, according to POLITICO’s review of campaign finance records. While both Democratic campaign arms confirmed to the outlet they received the contributions, they differed in their responses: the DGA opted to keep the funds; the DLGA said they were donating them to a pro-immigration group.

POLITICO’s report comes as many elected Democrats across the country have adopted aggressive anti-ICE stances in recent weeks, especially in the aftermath of the fatal Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement officers in January. (RELATED: Pro-Kamala Group Goes Dark After Getting Caught Fundraising Off Alex Pretti’s Death)

A Nov. 9, 2023 email from a DLGA staffer to CoreCivic obtained by POLITICO reportedly dasked for a $50,000 donation from the ICE contractor for the 2024 election cycle.

The DGA and DLGA did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

DLGA spokesperson Christina Freundlich told POLITICO the organization will be “donating any 2024-2025 contributions from CoreCivic to the National Immigration Law Center,” a group which describes itself as advancing “the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their loved ones.”

Freundlich added that the DLGA will “no longer accept” CoreCivic contributions “going forward,” POLITICO reported.

Meanwhile, a DGA spokesperson justified the gubernatorial campaign arm’s decision to keep the money given to them by the ICE contractor, telling the outlet, “We strongly condemn the Trump administration’s appalling immigration tactics, and the only way to stop them is by electing more Democrats.”

“Every contribution to the DGA helps elect Democratic governors and none of them have any impact on policy decisions made by governors,” the DGA spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the DGA’s chair and a rumored 2028 presidential candidate, referred the outlet to the same statement.

Beshear, who in 2025 said he will “take a look” at a White House bid, has ramped up his criticism of federal immigration enforcement officers in the wake of Good and Pretti’s deaths.

“They [officers] are operating with aggressive tactics that are not appropriate for law enforcement, they are not following our Constitution and giving people their rights,” the Democratic governor told CNN shortly after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Pretti. “The idea that they have a memo that says that they can just barge into someone’s house without a real warrant … I guess they missed the day they taught law in law school. It’s incredibly concerning.” (RELATED: ‘Nothing But Green Lights’: ICE Memo Expands Agents’ Warrantless Arrest Powers)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

“I’ve never seen a government agency push a group of law enforcement to be as aggressive and use the words of aggressiveness that I have with what is being pushed out there on ICE,” Beshear said, according to the Kentucky Lantern.

Spokespersons for Beshear and DLGA Chair Kyle Evans Gay, the lieutenant governor of Delaware, did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

While CoreCivic has donated to both Democrats and Republicans over the past several election cycles, it gave significantly more to GOP candidates than Democratic candidates in 2024, according to OpenSecrets. The company’s only donation to a Democratic candidate that year was a $2,500 contribution to Democratic Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, a longtime moderate lawmaker — while it gave a combined $62,000 to Republican congressional candidates in 2024, according to OpenSecrets’s records.

These records, however, only list individual federal candidates and not state-level campaign groups such as the DGA and DLGA.

The ICE contractor states on its website it “partners with the U.S. Marshals Service and [ICE] to provide safe environments where detainees can reside temporarily as they go through their legal due process.” In a separate chart linked on its website, however, CoreCivic specifies it does not “enforce immigration laws, arrest anyone who may be in violation of immigration laws, or have any say whatsoever in an individual’s deportation or release.”

The company in September 2025 announced a pair of contracts with ICE to “utilize 3,593 beds at two facilities we own in core enforcement areas of the United States,” according to a press release.

“Once fully activated, we expect to generate total annual revenue at the two facilities combined of nearly $200 million,” the release states.

“CoreCivic engages in the political process to include being corporate members of national organizations that represent elected officials around the country and across the political spectrum,” CoreCivic Senior Director of Public Affairs Ryan Gustin told the DCNF in a statement. “CoreCivic’s focus is to educate policymakers on solutions that partnership corrections can provide to help policymakers address serious national challenges.”

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