Newsom Signs 25% Tax on Private ICE Detention Centers

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a 25 percent tax on the gross income of private detention facilities, a levy that reaches every Immigration and Customs Enforcement site in California.

The bill is AB 1633. Newsom signed it Tuesday with a package of about 20 other measures and announced it in a Sept. 29 press release. “If we can’t kick out private facilities, we’ll go after their profits,” he said. The tax applies to private operators holding federal, state, or local contracts. Receipts go to a “Due Process for All Fund” for immigration-related services. The law takes effect July 1, 2028, the last year of Trump’s current term.

All eight ICE detention facilities in the state are privately run, Fox News reported from Department of Homeland Security figures. GEO Group owns five. Imperial Valley Gateway Center LLC owns one. DHS bought two more in July; CoreCivic operates them under contracts running through 2027 and 2029. Newsom also signed a ban on electric shock gloves in enforcement and language he said protects access to state courts. “We may not be able to dictate federal immigration policy, but we can make clear that activities taking place in California will be subject to California law,” he said.

Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital the tax has one purpose: to leave the federal government unable to find a private contractor in California willing to lease detention space. He said ICE now has room for about 66,000 people nationwide and relies on contractors in part to avoid building its own sites. If California operators walk away, he said, the department would have to convert federal property the state cannot tax, or move detainees to Arizona, Nevada, or other states willing to host the contracts and the jobs. Newsom’s office did not immediately comment to Fox.

The bill does not close a facility on its own. It raises the cost of running one. Whether GEO, CoreCivic, or the Imperial Valley operator keeps the contracts past 2028 is not in the signing statement. The effective date also means the tax does not change bed space before the November midterms. It does put a number on a state effort to raise the price of federal immigration detention inside California.