Company handling Australia’s immigration detention playing key role in Trump’s ICE migrant crackdown | Australian immigration and asylum
The Australian government’s main immigration detention contractor plays a key role in Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration crackdown and has been subject to a barrage of complaints over its treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees.
In recent years, the Albanian government has awarded lucrative immigration detention contracts to the local subsidiary of the leading US private prison company, Management and Training Corporation, to operate offshore processing facilities on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network.
The contracts were awarded despite serious concerns about MTC’s performance in the US, including allegations of “gross negligence” and “egregious” safety failures, and allegations that the state of Mississippi was operating “a conspiracy scheme” involving kickbacks, fraud and money laundering, paying bribes to government officials in exchange for contracts.
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The company has since been closely involved in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.
MTC is one of a handful of private prison operators that operate ICE detention facilities and hold thousands of detainees involved in the agency’s mass incarceration campaign. MTC holds detainees at the Bluebonnet and IAH Polk detention facilities in Texas, the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, and the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in California, near the Mexican border.
The American Civil Liberties Union said MTC has been the subject of a number of complaints about its treatment of ICE detainees. Attack on Bluebonnetcomplaints severe overcrowding IAH Polk and the use of solitary confinement as a punitive measure in Otero and the death of a prisoner at Imperial in September.
“The track record of private prison companies like MTC, which have uniquely profited from human suffering, including the recent crackdown on immigrant communities in the United States, speaks for itself,” said Eunice Cho, senior counsel for the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “This should raise serious questions for any government agency considering a contract.”
Local advocates and politicians have called for a review of the MTC’s immigration detention contracts with the Australian government. MTC has also contracted with state governments to operate various correctional institutions.
Jana Favero, deputy chief executive of the Refugee Resource Centre, said the Australian government’s partnership with the MTC was “deeply concerning”.
“However, despite this troubling track record, it is concerning that the Albanian government continues to knowingly cede and expand control of Australia’s offshore detention system to the MTC,” Favero said.
“As we watch in horror what is happening on the streets in the United States, including violent crackdowns on immigrants, we must do everything to distance ourselves from such actions here, starting with ending the contract with MTC.”
Greens senator David Shoebridge said the reports from the US should trigger an “immediate review” of the company’s contracts in Australia.
“No company that profits globally from immigration crackdowns and mass detentions should be entrusted with the care of vulnerable people in the custody of the Australian government,” he said.
Guardian Australia last year revealed MTC had been paid $790 million to keep 100 people on Nauru following a quiet expansion of its Australian government contract.
It has also won, through its subsidiary Secure Journeys Pty Ltd, a major contract worth $2.3 billion to operate Australia’s onshore detention centers in late 2024.
MTC said in a statement that immigration in the United States is a “highly politicized” environment and that “many public narratives conflate federal immigration policy decisions with the operational responsibilities of contract service providers.”
“MTC has operated correctional facilities, detention and educational facilities in a variety of jurisdictions for decades, often in complex and highly scrutinized environments,” the statement said.
He said the allegations of assault at Bluebonnet were investigated and cleared by ICE, and that the retaliatory use of solitary confinement, as alleged at the Otero facility, is strictly prohibited.
Madeline Gleeson, senior research fellow at the Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law, said there were “a number of private operators” for Australia’s immigration detention network and there had been long-standing complaints about the operations, but this did not diminish the government’s duty of care.
“This task will not end if it is carried out by a private company,” he said.
The Home Office has previously said it is reviewing integrity and governance issues relating to offshore processing contracts.
The 2023 review, led by former defense minister Dennis Richardson, concluded that the government “can rely on its existing contract with MTC Australia for the administration of regional processing arrangements”.
“MTC Australia is required to provide services in a way that is consistent with Nauruan legal requirements and protects individual human rights, dignity and the welfare of transferees,” a spokesperson said.
“The Department takes the management of all contracts seriously. The Department manages an evidence-based performance monitoring framework to verify that services are delivered in accordance with contractual requirements.”
