John Oliver skewered certain companies that appear to be celebrating the reported uptick in immigrant detentions. (Watch the video below.)
On Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” the host noted that ICE has a budget to house about 41,500 in detention centers on any given day but President Donald Trump wants more.
“Which in some quarters is cause for celebration,” Oliver said. “After the election, stock prices for private prison companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic soared.”
But perhaps they might be a tad too happy. Oliver played audio of CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger gushing in an earnings call, “I’ve worked at CoreCivic for 32 years and this is truly one of the most exciting periods in my career with the company.”
Oliver didn’t share the enthusiasm. “As a general rule, if something happens that causes a private prison company to get really excited, that thing was bad. If you ever come home and your spouse tells you, ‘Honey, I did something today and the GEO Group is super excited about it,’ you are in for a relationship-altering conversation.”
Fast-forward to 2:45 for that segment or watch the whole presentation: