The Australian government’s main immigration detention contractor is playing a key role in Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown and has attracted a string of complaints over its treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees.
In recent years, the Albanese government has awarded lucrative immigration detention contracts to the local subsidiary of Management and Training Corporation, a major US private prison company, to operate offshore processing facilities on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network.
The contracts were awarded despite serious concerns about MTC’s track record in the US, including allegations of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures, and allegations by the state of Mississippi that it had engaged in “a conspiracy scheme” of kickbacks, fraud and money laundering, paying bribes to state officials in exchange for contracts.
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The company has since become closely involved in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.
MTC is one of a handful of private prison operators running ICE detention facilities, holding thousands of detainees caught up in the agency’s mass arrest 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 that MTC has been the subject of a string of complaints about its treatment of ICE detainees, including allegations of assault at Bluebonnet, complaints of severe overcrowding at IAH Polk and Otero, the use of solitary confinement as a punitive measure at Otero and the death of a detainee at Imperial in September.
Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said “the track record of private prison corporations like MTC, who uniquely profit from human suffering, including the recent crackdown on immigrant communities in the United States, speaks for itself,” she said. “It should raise serious questions for any government entity considering a contract.”
Local advocates and politicians have called for a review of MTC’s immigration detention contracts with the Australian government. MTC is also contracted by state governments to run several correctional facilities.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s deputy chief executive, Jana Favero, said the Australian governments partnership with MTC was “deeply concerning”.
“Yet, despite this troubling track record, it is alarming the Albanese government continues to knowingly award and extend the company’s control of Australia’s offshore detention system to MTC,” Favero said.
“As we watch in horror at what’s happening on the streets in the US, including the violent crackdown on migrants, we should do everything to distance ourselves from such actions here, starting with ending the contract with MTC.”
David Shoebridge, a Greens senator, said the reports from the US should trigger an “immediate review” of the company’s Australian contracts.
“No company that profits globally from immigration crackdowns and mass detention should be entrusted with the care of vulnerable people in Australian government custody,” he said.
Guardian Australia revealed last year that MTC was being paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru, after a quiet expansion of its Australian government contract.
It separately won a large contract to operate Australia’s onshore detention centres, worth $2.3bn, in late 2024, via subsidiary Secure Journeys Pty Ltd.
MTC said in a statement that immigration in the US was a “highly politicised” environment and that “many public narratives conflate federal immigration policy decisions with the operational responsibilities of contracted service providers”.
“For decades, MTC has operated correctional, detention, and education facilities across multiple jurisdictions, often in complex and highly scrutinized environments,” the statement said.
It said the allegations of assault at Bluebonnet were investigated and cleared by ICE, and said it strictly prohibited the use of solitary confinement as retaliation, as alleged at its Otero facility.
Madeline Gleeson, a senior research fellow at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, said there had been “a rolling series” of private operators for Australia’s immigration detention network and longstanding complaints about operations, but that did not lessen the government’s duty of care.
“That duty doesn’t stop if it’s run by a private company,” she said.
The Department of Home Affairs said it had previously reviewed integrity and governance issues related to its offshore processing contracts.
The 2023 review, conducted by former defence secretary Dennis Richardson, found the government “could have confidence in the commonwealth’s existing contract with MTC Australia in its administration of regional processing arrangements”.
“MTC Australia is required to deliver services consistent with Nauru legislative requirements and in a manner that preserves individual human rights, dignity and the wellbeing of transferees,” a spokesperson said.
“The department takes the management of all contracts seriously. The department administers an evidence-based performance monitoring framework to verify the delivery of services in line with contractual requirements.”
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