RELEASE: Investors Sound the Alarm on GEO Group’s Involvement with Deportation Flights and Immigrant Detention

Potential Human Rights Violations Prompt GEO Group Investors to File Shareholder Proposal

New York, NY –A coalition of faith-based investors called on the GEO Group (GEO) to commission a third-party report evaluating the company’s potential involvement in violations of international human rights law. Their proposal was filed by the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus and 12 co-filers.

This proposal is the latest development in a longstanding engagement between GEO and investors that has focused on investor concerns over the company’s conduct in the immigration space. Those concerns include a focus on GEO and its subsidiary GTI providing transportation to and security on deportation flights to El Salvador, including to the notorious CECOT prison.

GEO faces material risks and may potentially be violating international human rights law given its use of transportation and security for deportation including cases that may “involve enforced disappearances.”  UN human rights experts have stated that “deportations [to El Salvador] and related incommunicado detentions appeared to involve enforced disappearances, contrary to international law.” Over the 2025 winter holidays, GEO filed notice to omit the shareholder proposal from 2026 Proxy Materials, disregarding offers for dialogue by investor proponents.

“Our faith states unambiguously that the way we treat the stranger is the way we treat the Almighty,” said Father Bryan Pham, a Jesuit priest, resolution filer, and lead with the GEO dialogue. “The immigration raids and detentions that have escalated over the past year and the current administration’s abrasive disregard for due process and human rights shock the conscience and raise serious concerns over whether the U.S. federal government and its partners in corporate America are breaking the law. With this proposal, we are hoping the GEO Group will step into the light and agree to a due diligence process guided by truth, integrity and transparency.”

“Companies like GEO have an obligation to their shareholders to act responsibly, adhere to laws and not create unacceptable downstream risk,” said Nadira Narine, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. “Respect for international human rights laws are included in that set of obligations. With this proposal, we are calling on GEO’s leadership to agree to a process that ensures they remain on the right side of the law and do not engage in any activity that could present massive legal risk.”

“Investors in the GEO Group must be able to rely on the management and board for determining the risks of their operations. When the company is involved in international deportation flights, we question whether GEO’s oversight of their human rights impacts is sufficient. This apparent lack of understanding of international law prompts our desire for a third-party evaluation as a first step to ensure that people’s lives and safety will not be so callously disregarded,” said Katie McCloskey, Vice President of Social Responsibility at Mercy Investment Services.