The companies that make money when ICE detains and deports people have found a senator worth investing in: Susan Collins.
Federal Election Commission records show executives at Palantir, CoreCivic and GEO Group — three major ICE contractors — have given more than $122,000 to Collins's campaign, her leadership PAC and the super PAC re-electing her this cycle. The single largest check is $100,000 from Palantir CEO Alex Karp.
The Maine Beacon flagged the pattern on October 13. We pulled the FEC filings ourselves.
Who gave, and how much
Palantir — $117,250. Every dollar below is listed in FEC records under a Palantir employer:
- $100,000 from Alex Karp to Pine Tree Results, the pro-Collins super PAC, on May 12, 2025.
- $12,000 from Palantir executive Shyam Sankar — $7,000 to Collins's campaign and $5,000 to her leadership PAC, Dirigo PAC.
- $5,000 from Palantir's Akash Jain to Collins's campaign, plus a smaller gift from another employee.
CoreCivic — $4,541. That includes $3,500 from Damon Hininger, who lists CoreCivic as his employer, to Collins's campaign in March.
GEO Group — $1,000 to Collins's campaign in September 2025.
The Maine Beacon reports that before Trump's second term, Collins had taken just $2,850 from ICE contractors, their employees and their PACs.
What these companies sell
These aren't random businesses. Their bottom lines depend on how much money Congress gives ICE.
- Palantir builds ICE's surveillance and deportation software. ICE is paying Palantir $30 million for "ImmigrationOS," a system that helps ICE decide who gets deported first, tracks who leaves, and manages the process from identification to removal.
- CoreCivic and GEO Group run private detention centers. Both posted record revenue in 2025 — $2.6 billion for GEO and $2.2 billion for CoreCivic — as they expanded to hold more people arrested under the Trump administration. On earnings calls, both called the expansion a "significant growth opportunity."
More ICE money means more contracts for all three.
What Collins voted for
On June 5, 2026, at 4:42 in the morning, Collins voted for nearly $70 billion for ICE and the Border Patrol — $38.5 billion of it for ICE — with no oversight or accountability rules attached, as we laid out in our breakdown of that vote.
Less than two hours earlier, she voted against an amendment that would have put $300 million into body cameras for immigration officers and made the footage available. It failed by seven votes.
Then, on July 13, an ICE agent killed a young father in Biddeford, Maine — with no body camera running. Collins responded by announcing ICE would get cameras by the end of August, Maine first, "at my request." We covered how she took credit for the cameras she voted against.
What the donors got
We can't see inside anyone's head, and the donors haven't said why they gave. But the record is what it is:
- The CEO of ICE's deportation-software contractor put $100,000 behind Collins's re-election.
- The senator voted to give the agency that pays his company $38.5 billion with no strings.
- She voted against the cameras that would have shown the public what that money buys.
That's a lot of money from the companies cashing in on the Trump administration's deportation push — and a voting record that keeps the money flowing to them.
The bottom line
FEC records show executives at Palantir, CoreCivic and GEO Group — companies that profit from ICE detention and deportation — gave more than $122,000 to Susan Collins's campaign, her leadership PAC and her super PAC, including $100,000 from Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Collins then voted for nearly $70 billion in ICE and Border Patrol funding with no oversight rules and against $300 million for officers' body cameras.
Source
ICE contractors reward Susan Collins' loyalty with campaign donations — Maine Beacon
