The Business of Suffering: How ICE Detention Centers Turn Trauma into Profit
“If migration is a business, then suffering is the currency—and it’s time to shut it down.” - Mary Coughlin
The Business of Suffering: How ICE Detention Centers Turn Trauma into Profit
The Politics of Profit and Pain
People come to the U.S. seeking safety, opportunity, and a better future. Instead, they are met with chains, cages, and cruelty. Families are torn apart. Children sleep on concrete floors. And behind it all, a simple, chilling truth:
Migration is a business.
A former detention center leader once asked, “What are we in this business for?” The answer? Money. Because in the U.S., suffering isn’t just tolerated—it’s commodified.
The Politics of Profit and Pain
Let’s be clear: the system isn’t broken. It’s functioning exactly as intended.
Fear is currency. Politicians use immigration as a political weapon, stoking fear to gain votes.
Lobbyists grease the wheels. Private prison and detention companies spend millions to ensure laws favor detention over humane solutions.
Profit drives policy. The longer people are detained, the more money these companies make.
Private detention corporations like CoreCivic and GEO Group don’t exist to “manage” immigration. They exist to profit from it—earning billions from government contracts while cutting corners on food, medical care, and basic human dignity.
This isn’t about national security. It’s about securing profits.
A Trauma Machine Masquerading as Policy
We know what trauma does to the human body and brain. We know that prolonged fear, uncertainty, and dehumanization create lifelong harm. And yet, the U.S. government systematically inflicts trauma on those who arrive seeking refuge.
🔹 Parents separated from their children with no way of knowing if they’ll ever reunite.
🔹 People held indefinitely in inhumane conditions, stripped of their humanity.
🔹 The scars of detention lasting long after release—manifesting as PTSD, anxiety, and despair.
This is not accidental. This is deliberate harm for financial gain.
What Does This Say About Us?
A country that claims to stand for freedom and justice cannot justify a system that profits from caging human beings. The very existence of a for-profit detention industry tells us that:
We value profit over people.
We see borders as more important than bodies.
We have normalized trauma as an acceptable consequence of seeking safety.
What Can We Do?
We must refuse to let this continue in our name. Here’s how:
✔ Call for the end of private detention centers. No one should profit from human suffering.
✔ Support organizations fighting for immigrant rights, like RAICES, ACLU, and Freedom for Immigrants.
✔ Use your voice. Talk about this. Share the stories of those impacted. Demand accountability.
Because no one should have to survive the very place they thought would save them.
And if migration has become a business, it’s time to shut it down.
This isn’t just about borders. It’s about who we choose to be. If we allow suffering to be a business, we’ve already lost our humanity. But we can refuse to look away. We can demand better. And we can shut this cruelty down.
We don’t have to accept a world where trauma is currency. We can REIMAGINE a world where dignity is the default. A world where no one has to survive the place they thought would save them.
In defiance of injustice,
Mary
P.S.: The fight against detention centers isn’t just about policy—it’s about people. If this enrages you, good. Use it. Share this, speak out, and demand an end to for-profit suffering. Because silence is complicity, and we were never meant to be silent.
