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The Trump administrations vow to be tougher on crime and illegal immigration plus his top law enforcement officers endorsement of privately run prisons have sent shares of private prison management companies soaring.

The two leading firms, CoreCivic (CXW) (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) and GEO Group (GEO), essentially have doubled their stock prices since Election Day and are near their 52-week highs. Over the last year CoreCivic shares have jumped 19 percent, while those of GEO are up 68 percent.

Since Trumps election, the market capitalization of GEO has roughly doubled to about $3.7 billion; the market capitalization of CoreCivic is now more than $4 billion.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently rolled back an Obama-era directive issued last August that called for phasing out the federal governments use of private prison management firms at the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Sessions is also a proponent of aggressive enforcement of drug and immigration laws and of taking a no-holds-barred approach to violent crime perpetrators, something that could increase the demand for more prison capacity.

The former Alabama lawmaker said last years move to end BOP contracts which currently includes 12 private contracts for correctional centers that house about 21,000 inmates impaired the Bureaus ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system. The BOP has an average of 189,000 people in custody.

Private prison firms handle facilities and detainees for the BOP, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Homeland Security chiefly Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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ICE relies on private contractors to hold about 60 percent of its detainees, according to Canaccord Genuity strategist Michael Kodesch. As of November of last year (the latest available figure) ICEs average daily detention population was 40,875. CoreCivic and GEO alone have 13,000 beds for immigrant detainees.

Trump plans to add 10,000 immigration officers and 5,000 border control agents, which could increase ICEs average daily detention population.

Housing detained immigrants may well account for the private prison industrys strongest prospects under the Trump administration, Canaccord Genuity strategist Michael Kodesch told Fox News.

When you have the administration ramping up border security and detention, youll have higher criminal alien populations, and youll need those beds. Its a positive headline for prisons, Kodesch said.

He added, however, that Trumps policy wont likely mean an immediate boost to capital improvement budgets for private prisons. Thats because the companies dont often do development based on speculative need, but rather on the procurement of a new contract and immediate demand.

Such speculation may be warranted.

The Obama administrations plan was to phase out private contractors over time, as opposed to cancelling these contracts right away, said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas School of Public Affairs and an expert on private prisons. The fact that the attorney general is saying we are planning to expand the federal prison system is very indicative of plans to step up law enforcement and expansion of sentences.

The overall prison population has declined since Obamas Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which eliminated the five-year mandatory sentence for simple drug possession, among other things.But Trumps immigration orders calling for aggressive tracking down, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants, plus those who have legal status but have committed crimes, are expected to reverse that decline and result in a need for more detention beds.

Both prison companies avoided directly commenting on Trump and Obama but expressed optimism about their future collaboration with the federal government.

Our company welcomes the memorandum by the Attorney General reinstating the continued use of privately operated facilities, which has been long-standing practice and policy at the federal level," Pablo Paez, GEO's vice president of corporate relations said in a statement. "We believe that the decision made last August was based on a misrepresentation of the report issued by the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General."

Private prisons have their critics, to be sure. The Office of the Inspector General issued a critical report last year of privately run federal facilities. When she was expected to win the election last year, Hillary Clinton expressed a commitment to ending private prisons and immigrant detention, sending shares of companies that depend on federal clients plummeting.

Others say private contractors are better positioned to run jails and detention center.

Private facilities are dedicated ICE detention centers that have things as simple as air conditioningthey also has health screenings and processing abilities for these populations, Kodesh said.

Click here for more reporting from Victoria Craig and Liz Llorente.

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Private Prison Firms Gain as Trump Plans to Crack Down on Crime ... - Fox Business

There are reports that President Trump might call for some kind of amnesty for illegal aliens who have not committed serious crimes in his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday.

The reports came after journalists attended a White House luncheon Tuesday and cited a senior White House official for the statement on the controversial issue.

NBCs Lester Holt and Chuck Todd are quoting a White House official as saying Trump may issue a call for immigration compromise, while Dara Lind of Vox contributed a full quote from the official, sayingThe time is right for an immigration bill if both sides are willing to compromise.

George Stephanopoulos of NBC characterizedthe White House officials statement as indicating the president believes now may be time for immigration bill that has compromise on all sides.

The word that President Trump may ask lawmakers to tackle comprehensive immigration reform sparked quick reaction up on Capitol Hill, Blitzer said, then asked CNNs senior congressional reporter Manu Raju, Manu what are you hearing?

Well, mixed reaction Wolf, even on the Republican side of the aisle, Raju explained.

Some conservatives who have pushed for tougher border security measures dont want togo this route, including Steve Scalise (R-La.) one of the members of the Republican leadership telling our colleague Deirdre Walsh that, I want us to secure our border, that needs to be our priority, not a compromise bill.

But some other Republicans open to the idea, including Marco Rubio of Florida, who also told our colleague Ashley Killough that actually he could be open to something like this. Of course he tried to cut that immigration deal in 2013. And on the Democratic side a lot of skepticism including from Oregons Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) who I talked to about this idea, possibly of giving legal status to people who are here undocumented but havent committed serious crimes. He wasnt so sure about that idea.

I would have to see the details of any proposal, said Wyden to Raju. Certainly if he is looking at something bipartisan, hes gonna have to walk some of the statements that he has made time after time after time. Which would in effect would say that there would be a lot of focus by immigration authorities like ICE on people who havent committed any serious crimes.

When asked by Raju, Would you be open to any citizenship just legal status? Wyden responded,Id have to see the details.

Indeed and also, Raju continued, the Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was asked is there any compromise bill that you believe that Donald Trump could get behind that you could get behind, and he said that hes got a lot to undo.'

However, leaks of this nature have come out of the administration many times before and been completely discredited, leading some to speculate that Trump is orchestrating leaksfor the sake of undermining the credibility of the media. And, as some have noted, they could have been reporting on idle speculation by a White House official that was being seriously considered but may not make it into the final draft of the speech.

Trump had called for all illegal aliens to be deported, but has since walked back his position and said that perhaps some could stay if they hadnt committed serious crimes. Many hard-line Republicans are demanding no concessions be given at all to the illegal alien advocates who are now organizing underground railroad homes to house illegals from ICE deportations. Democrats are also planning to bring recipients of Obamas amnesty to Trumps address Tuesday.

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Report: Trump might call for amnesty for illegal aliens in address to Congress - TheBlaze.com

We sat down with people from across the Phoenix area and asked them what they thought should be done at the border.

Brahm Resnik , KPNX 10:16 PM. MST February 27, 2017

Hernan from Phoenix talks with 12 News' Brahm Resnik about immigration. (Photo: Jeff Blackburn/12 News)

There's the wall on the border. Then's there's the wall between us.

Illegal immigration is one of the more divisive issues in Arizona. It has been for years.

President Donald Trump's crackdown on the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants has made the border a national issue again.

On Tuesday night, the country will come face-to-face with Arizona's reality.

Congressmen Ruben Gallego and Raul Grijalva plan to bring the two children of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, the Mesa woman who was deported to Mexico three weeks ago, to Trump's State of the Union speech.

We asked Arizonans in Fountain Hills, Phoenix and Tempe how they view the issue, for our "Two Chairs" segment. We set up two chairs and let people sit down and talk to us.

Renate is from Fountain Hills. (Photo: Jeff Blackburn/12 News)

"I don't even want to watch TV anymore. It makes me sick to my stomach. They'll break into your houses, they'll steal your car. You know, they'll go into Mesa and all these suburbs and I am sick of it. These people think they can get everything free. No! We didn't get anything free. Why should they get free? You know, it's wrong."

Prentice is from Tempe. (Photo: Jeff Blackburn/12 News)

Joshua is from Phoenix. (Photo: Jeff Blackburn/12 News)

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Two Chairs: Illegal immigration and the border - 12news.com

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Current and former detainees, including illegal immigrants, are suing the countrys second largest private prison company, allegingthe for-profit institution forced them to work for extremely low wages or nothing at all.

A federal judge ruled Monday that inmates at a detention center in Colorado can participate in a class-action lawsuit against the private corrections company,GEO group. The prison complexholds illegal immigrants slated for deportation.

This is the first lawsuit of its kind in the history of the United States, Andrew Free, one of the plaintiffs attorneys told The Daily Beast. This is the first time that a private prison company has ever been accused of forced labor, and this is the first time that a judge has ever found that the claims can go forward under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the bans in federal law on forced labor.

Judge John Kane assigned theattorneys to legally represent all detainees held at the Aurora, Colo. center since Oct. 22, 2004, which could equal nearly 60,000 people, according to The Daily Beast.

Illegal immigrant detainees said if they refused to work, they would be threatened with solitary confinement.

GEOs Aurora facility is being run on the backs of detainees, with GEOs profits flowing from abusing this cheap detainee labor, Alexander Hood told The Daily Beast.

But GEO Group refutes theseaccusations, saying they comply with the law.

The volunteer work program at immigration facilities as well as the wage rates and standards associated with the program are set by the Federal government, said Pablo Paez, a spokesperson for the company, according toThe Daily Beast. Our facilities, including the Aurora, Colo. Facility, are highly rated and provide high-quality services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments pursuant to the Federal Governments national standards.

The judges decision to permit the lawsuit could have implications for the Trump administrations immigration enforcement strategy. Approximately 65 percent of Department of Homeland Security detainees were held in privately run facilities, according to USA Today. And if more lawsuits in the future are authorized based on precedent, then immigrant detention could potentially require more funding, whether privately or publicly.

GEO Group has a history with President Donald Trump, having donated $250,000 for his inauguration ceremony, according to USA Today. (RELATED: Zuckerberg-Led Immigration Group Opposed Trump, Then Gave Him $5,000)

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Illegal Immigrants Sue Private Prison For 'Forced Labor' | The Daily ... - Daily Caller

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Mexico is not happy that President Trump appears to be serious about building a border wall and halting the cross-border human traffic. The improvements in border security promised in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 as a trade-off for the general amnesty never happened, and illegal border crossings have trended upwards again after a brief decline connected to the 2008-10 recession. Apprehensions of illegal border jumpers on the southwest border have increased every year but one since 2010, and increased 23 percent from 2015 to 2016.

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Because of the relative ease of crossing the border and Mexicos liberal definition of Mexican citizenship, we have the situation recently described by author Ann Coulter, who discovered that persons of Mexican origin now residing in the United States legal and illegal are equal in number to over 25 percent of the 130 million population of Mexico.

The Pew Hispanic Center says there were 33.7 million Americans of Mexican descent in the United States in 2012, and that figure is based in part on the official Census figure of 11.3 million illegal aliens, over 60 percent of whom are from Mexico. If you believe as I do that the illegal alien population of the U.S. is over 25 million, not 11.3 million, then the percentage of Mexican nationals now residing in the U.S. persons recognized as Mexican citizens under the Mexican Constitution is considerably above 25 percent.

Few Americans are aware that in 2005, in recognition of the growing importance of remittances to the Mexican economy and thus the growing importance of maintaining a close connection with the millions of Mexicans who have moved north, the Mexican constitution was amended to bestow voting rights in presidential elections for Mexicans living abroad. In 2012, over eleven million Mexicans living in the United States voted in the Mexican presidential election.

Let me put this in stark economic terms: Mexicos national income grows in direct proportion to the size of the illegal Mexican population inside the United States. Does that help explain the Mexican fixation on U.S. politics? Mexicos most profitable export to the U.S. is not oil or avocados or automobile parts, it is people.

Mexicans living and working in theU.S. send home over $20 billion annually in cash remittances more than Mexico earns in foreign currency from tourism or any export commodity.

In 1979, Mexico received only $177,000 (U.S. Dollars) in remittances; in 2016 it was $26.1 BILLION over 90 percent of it from persons living in the United States. (See here for a GAO report on remittances to Mexico from the U.S. and here for the World Bank reports for total remittances received by Mexico.)

You dont believe government data? Even the Clinton News Network confirms it: this recent CNN report says Mexico relies more on remittance income than the sale of oil or tourism.

To guarantee those remittance dollars keep flowing north to south, Mexico must keep exporting its citizens south to north. Does anyone think Mexico will give up that lucrative income graciously?Do you think Mexican politicians will welcome an interruption of either of those two flows either people going north or dollars coming south?

As a Congressman, back in 2001, I visited Mexico along with two of my colleagues and met with several high government officials in the Mexican capital. One of those officials was Juan Hernandez, a dual citizen with a home in Texas, who at that time was the head of a cabinet department. That department had the name,Ministry for Mexicans Living Abroad, but it has since been reorganized and given a lower public profile as the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, a government-funded division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I asked Seor Hernandez, what exactly do you do here? He was quite candid and informative and not the least bit apologetic. Hernandezs job was to direct and coordinate a large collection of enterprises of transport and educational activities aimed at assisting and encouraging Mexicans in physically moving north across Mexico and entering the United States.

I was struck by both the grandiosity and bravura of that official Mexican government operationdirected by a cabinet official. Somewhat shocked by his candid admissions, I asked Hernandez, hey, arent you embarrassed by violating the sovereignty of a neighboring country? His reply was delivered calmly and with a smile. I remember his words clearly: Really, congressman, we dont have two countries here, its just a region.

I also asked Hernandez, why does the Mexican government work so hard to maintain contact with Mexicans even after they become naturalized citizens of the United States? He told me, its because they tend to stop sending money home after they assimilate. Assimilation, he believed, was a problem: if Mexicans stopped being Mexicans first, and Americans second, that is very bad for Mexico.

Juan Hernandez, as I said, is a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, and he has been very involved in U.S. politics. In 2008, working from his Texas home, he was named as presidential candidate John McCains chief of Outreach to Hispanic Americans.

You can makeofthat connection with John McCain what you will; maybe the guy just needed a job. But as for myself, I would worry if my candidate were endorsed by the Juan Hernandez characters of the world, and I am delighted that Seor Juan Hernandez is apoplectic over the plans announced by President Trump.

What lies ahead for U.S.-Mexican relations? Your guess is as good as mine, but if Trump persists in his plans, Mexican bluster and outrage will be replaced by a more pragmatic accommodation. The border will continue to be a point of conflict, but Mexico may come to realize that the end of the remittance cornucopia was inevitable.

Mexico can grow its own economy and create millions of jobs for its people by abandoning its socialist dogmas and state-owned enterprises. If that happens, someday soon Mexican politicians will see the bitter medicine administered by Trump as a blessing in disguise.

Polls of newly-arrived Mexicans who entered our country illegally reveal that the large majority of them do not intend to stay forever. Typically, uponarrival, they plan to get a job, send money home, and then return home to Mexico and enjoy a better life than what they left.

Mexicans naturally retain a love of thecountryof their birthand that love of country is certainly not a bad thing if you think of it as your true home. If ten million Mexicans now in the United States became optimistic about Mexicos future and returned home to fight corruption, build a better educational system and a stronger economy, that, too, would not be a bad thing.

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Tancredo: Illegal Immigration Props Up Mexico's Dysfunctional State - Breitbart News