PRIVATE PRISON GIANT HIRED ICE DETENTION CHIEF
Prior to his spin through the revolving door, GEO Group fêted [ICE official Daniel A.] Bible to the tune of $1,025 for him to “travel and [have] lunch for [an] employment discussion.” The date of that trip is not disclosed, but the ethics disclosure form, signed by Bible on October 17, 2024, states that Bible notified ICE ethics officials of his then-future employment with GEO Group.
Bible’s time at ICE included working closely with GEO Group. He spent four years running ICE’s field office in San Antonio, Texas, from 2016 to 2020 where, according to his LinkedIn profile, he oversaw five detention facilities and two family residential centers holding over 7,000 people. A law review article published by Washington University School of Law found high rates of arrests, removals, and detention of noncitizens without convictions or who were deemed as “no threat” by the San Antonio field office compared to other ICE field offices during fiscal year 2019, when Bible was in charge. “These disparities suggest that field offices may be applying their own priorities or discretionary standards,” stated the study authored by Fatma Marouf, a Texas A&M University law school professor.
During Bible’s tenure at ICE, facilities he oversaw — including those run by GEO Group — were among those to face allegations of sexual abuse, medical neglect, and inhumane treatment of people in detention. In 2018, a toddler died after becoming ill at one of the family detention facilities overseen by Bible. (That facility was run by CoreCivic, another private prison and detention company. Although the practice of detaining families was ended under President Biden, the Trump administration’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, said that family detention centers like those in Texas could return with the new administration.)
Javier Hidalgo, legal director at RAICES, a Texas-based nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, personally visited many of the detention facilities overseen by the San Antonio field office during Bible’s tenure. He recalled Bible’s lack of responsiveness to problems in the facilities. “Looking at who can we escalate issues to — his name would come up,” Hidalgo said. “And then it would be a dead end.”
