A little over a week ago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson publicly called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to send independent experts to Chicago to investigate the ongoing abuses at the hands of federal immigration officials:
“‘We cannot do this alone,’ said Mayor Brandon Johnson. ‘That is why I call on this Council to hold the federal government of the United States to the same standards of accountability you apply elsewhere in the world. No country should be above international law. Human rights are universal—or they are meaningless.’”
Chicago is Corporate Accountability Lab’s (CAL) home. To some, it might seem like an odd choice to have an international human rights organization headquartered in Chicago, rather than in New York City or Washington D.C. But to us, this choice goes beyond our individual roots in this great city. Chicago is the historic seat of the labor movement– the site of the Haymarket affair that resulted in the eight-hour work day and inspired workers around the world, home of the first Black labor union (Brotherhood of the Pullman Car Porters), and home of Fred Hampton and the Rainbow Coalition. Organizing and resistance are in Chicago’s blood, and movement-building is in the soil here.
So much of CAL’s work is focused outside of the United States, but we would be remiss not to emphasize what is happening in Chicago right now as an assault on the rule of law and our constitutional and human rights. And of course, corporations are quietly raking in record profits from the federal government’s war on our home.
For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, the Trump Administration authorized a federal immigration crackdown in Chicago, a sanctuary city. While the federal government is charged with enforcing immigration laws, what we are seeing goes far beyond that – it is inhumane, morally repugnant, and a deep violation of the basic tenets and laws that construct our republic. Tangibly, this looks like federal agents shooting a clergy member in the head with pepper bullets while he is praying; ICE deploying chemical weapons outside of schools and on residential streets where children are preparing for their Halloween parade; arresting elected Chicago officials as they stand up for their constituents’ rights; dragging men, women and children from their beds in the middle of the night, zip-tying them, and then sorting through who is a citizen – or not; violently throwing a 70-year old man to the ground; detaining the father of a teenager who had just been released from the hospital after 39 days for cancer treatment; arresting and detaining members of the press for reporting on ICE activities; this list goes on, and gets longer every day. And to be clear, these violent tactics aren’t solely impacting undocumented immigrants – those with legal documentation and many citizens have been arrested in these sweeps, peaceful protestors have been arrested while exercising their First Amendment rights, and ICE and CBP have deployed tear gas in influential, white neighborhoods as well as in immigrant ones. This is not an immigration issue, it is a human rights issue – and someone is raking in profits from this orchestrated war.
The Deportation Industrial Complex
President Trump’s infamous legislation, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” established the largest ever budget for ICE, making it the largest law enforcement agency in the country. This fiscal year, ICE’s budget reached a staggering $87.49 billion, of which only $9.65 billion has been awarded to private contractors supporting the ongoing immigration raids across the country.
Locally, Chicago-area companies supplied the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) (which house many of the agencies wreaking havoc and spreading terror in Chicago, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), etc.) with everything from projectiles, munitions, tactical gear, communications services and relocation services. One local company, Burhani Enterprises, made $33,470 by supplying CBP with a pizza oven and flat top griddle. Block Club Chicago reporting revealed other local big players in the terror game:
United Tactical Systems: Awarded $2.1 Million in federal contracts in 2025 by DHS and DOJ, for weapons, ammunition, and tactical gear. Per Block Club Chicago, “More than $1 million of that money was contracted just two days before agents escalated its use of the weapons, shooting protesters and journalists with pepper balls.”
Reliance Relocation Services: Awarded $7.3 million from DHS/ICE to relocate federal agents to the area over a four month period, with the contract ending the same day DHS announced its Chicago operation.
Motorola Solutions: $267,300 to provide radio network communications access for ICE agents carrying out operations in Chicago.
Invisio Communications: Awarded $398,099 from CBP for tactical communication gear. Invisio is a Swedish company with U.S. operations headquartered in downtown Chicago.
However, it’s not just our neighbors profiting off of this reign of terror. Large national and international corporations such as CACI, GEO Group, and Core Civic are also raking in millions. CACI, a regular federal government contractor, was recently in headlines after a jury found the company liable for $3 million in compensatory damages per plaintiff and $11 million in punitive damages for a total of $42 million owed to victims of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraqi war. While they are currently appealing this ruling, they continue to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars from DHS – $362.9 million total alone in 2025, with $308.92 million of that sum awarded by ICE for research and development, software design, and communication technologies. Most recently, CACI received a contract of $1.66 million from ICE for computer system design services, awarded on September 29, 2025. It is no coincidence that CACI plays a role in terror and detention scenarios around the world; when President Trump said he was going to wage war on Chicago, he knew exactly which experienced player to tap.
GEO Group, ICE’s biggest contractor, “reported second-quarter revenue of $636.2 million” in 2025. GEO Group holds almost 20% of contracts awarded to support ICE operations this year. In addition to private prisons, GEO Group operates over a dozen immigration detention facilities across the United States, and has long faced allegations of forced labor in their facilities. Currently, they are embroiled in a case (Menocal v. GEO Group) brought by detained immigrants at their Aurora, Colorado facility who alleged they had been engaged in forced labor. The Supreme Court is set to consider whether the circuit court ruling denying GEO Group’s claim of governmental immunity should be overturned.
GEO Group is one of the largest private prison and surveillance companies in the United States, and also operates detention facilities in Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. It has faced many lawsuits alleging abuse and rights violations, including recent allegations of forced labor and sexual assault reported by queer and trans immigrant detainees at one of their facilities in Louisiana.
CoreCivic, another private prison and immigration detention center giant, expects to rake in over $300 million from new ICE contracts this year. Much like GEO Group, Core Civic has a history of mistreatment of its detainees. In 2023, CoreCivic reached a settlement with former immigrant detainees over allegations of forced labor in violation of a federal trafficking statute. Despite long records of rights violations, these companies continued to be awarded massive contracts paid for by the American people.
The Struggle for Human Rights at Home and Abroad
Thirteen months ago, we would not have believed that our Mayor would be calling on the United Nations to investigate the federal government waging war on our home city. Given the bloody history of this country, it would not be correct to say this is shocking. More so, the swift descent to where we are now, barely ten months into this administration’s reign of power, is profoundly unsettling. Whatever rule of law the United States could ever claim to have—even if it only benefited the privileged—is gone. Despite district courts’ restraining orders, federal agents continue to use chemical weapons, projectiles, and violence against their own people. Our own government appears to be wantonly trampling on our rights; and we are barely ten months in. While U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino may have left Chicago to sow chaos and violence in Charlotte, we know the raids will continue here. Already Bovino has promised to return in March with four times the forces we saw these past two months.
However, we do not despair. Chicago is organized and resistance runs deep here. CAL’s work continues around the world as it has. But now, we also call on our colleagues to pay attention, to follow our local media. Pay attention to the companies profiting off this reign of terror and ongoing human rights violations. Keep your eyes on Chicago and bear witness.
Header image by SwissAmish from June 2025 in Chicago, under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
