GEO Group signs deal to open 1,800-bed detention center in Michigan

March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and private prison operator GEO Group ( GEO ) have brokered an agreement to open a federal immigration detention center immediately in central Michigan, the company said on Thursday.

The facility owned by GEO contains 1,800 beds and the company expects to generate more than $70 million in annualized revenue in its first full year of operation, it said. GEO expects to finalize a long-term contract with ICE within a few months.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The agreement comes as Republican President Donald Trump seeks to ramp up a wide-ranging immigration crackdown in a bid to reduce illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of immigrants.

A senior ICE official told reporters earlier this month that detention capacity was maxed out at 47,600 detainees, well beyond the agency's funded level of 41,500. ICE was working to expand its bed count, including by partnering with other federal agencies, the official said.

Legal experts, civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have pushed back on the administration's use of rarely invoked laws to justify some of its efforts including deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador and trying to deport a lawful permanent resident.

GEO is one of the largest private prison operators in the United States, with 50 facilities including detention centers and correctional centers throughout the country, according to its website.

Local media reported the facility had been a prison and the economically depressed Michigan area's largest employer before its closure in 2022, after then-U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at ending the federal government's use of private prisons. (Reporting by Makini Brice and Ted Hesson; Editing by Mark Porter and Chris Reese)