Man hangs himself while in an immigration detention facility

The Moshannon Valley Processing Center

While in ICE custody at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, Chaofeng Ge, a 32-year-old citizen of China, was found hanging by the neck in the shower.

Ge was pronounced deceased by the Clearfield County coroner at approximately 6:03 a.m. on Aug. 5.

He had been in ICE custody for five days and was awaiting a hearing before the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. MVPC staff discovered Ge hanging by the neck and unresponsive in the shower room of his detention pod at 5:21 a.m. They reportedly immediately "cut down" Ge to the ground, began CPR and contacted Phillipsburg Emergency Medical Services, the Pennsylvania State Police and the coroner’s office.

Chaofeng Ge

According to a police report from Lower Paxton Township, Ge was arrested Jan. 23 after allegedly using a stolen credit card to buy gift cards. The next day, Philadelphia’s Enforcement and Removal Operations York sub-office lodged an immigration detainer with the Dauphin County Prison.

Ge pleaded guilty to the original charges on July 31. He was sentenced to six to 12 months for each count and granted immediate release to the ICE detainer.

Privately-run detention centers

Moshannon Valley Processing Center, is a privately run immigration jail operated by the GEO Group in a rural area about 300 miles west of New York City. Since  Donald Trump began his second term, the detention center has become a major warehouse for immigrants apprehended by ICE in and around New York and Philadelphia.

Before Ge's death, the detention center was already the subject of scores of complaints about abusive conditions. Among other complaints, detainees and civil rights advocates noted a serious lack of language services and an oppressive environment that seemed more like a prison for convicted criminals than a temporary holding center for immigrants.

FYI: ICE makes official notifications to Congress, nongovernmental organization stakeholders, and the media upon an official report of a detained illegal alien’s death and posts a news release with relevant details on the ICE public website within two business days per agency policy. This information may be accessed in the ICE.gov Newsroom. Additionally, congressional requirements described in the DHS Appropriations Bill of 2018 require ICE to make public all reports regarding an in-custody death within 90 days.These reports may be accessed on the Detainee Death Reporting page.

Apparently, the suicide of Chaofeng Ge, is not an isolated incident it’s a sign of deeperand larger issues mainstream media has not focused on.

From last October 2024 to late June of this year, 12 people nationwide have died in ICE facilities — more than the total deaths in all of the last fiscal year, with three months remaining in this cycle, according to The Intercept. It was the highest number of ICE detainee deaths since the Covid pandemic in 2020.

Among the 12 deaths were at least two suicides. Ge’s death at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center was the third.

ICE is good for business

Detainee populations nationwide have risen at least 25% since Trump was inaugurated and are major beneficiaries of the Trump immigration crackdown. The Moshannon jail is now the largest immigration detention center in the Northeast. Critics say the speed of its growth risks creating dangerous conditions for detainees, including crowding and lack of sufficient medical and mental health resources.

The cost of housing a detainee in the private detention centers on average  runs about $160 per day per detainee.The cost of privately run ICE detention centers involves billions of taxpayer dollars, with concerns centering around contractual arrangements that include bed quotas and a lack of transparency and oversight, potentially leading to wasteful spending and concerns about the quality of care provided to detainees, reports The Intercept.

Private prison companies, particularly the GEO Group, are major beneficiaries of the Trump administrations' immigration policies and, not surprisngly, have significantly contributed to Donald Trump's political campaigns and related entities.

Here's a summary breakdown of their contributions to Trump and Republicans:

• Altogether, private prison companies - that includes the GEO Group - their PACs, subsidiaries, and CEOs donated nearly $2.8 million to Trump's 2024 election efforts and inaugural fund.

• GEO Group and its affiliated PACs donated heavily to Trump PACs and Republican congressional campaigns, including $1 million to Trump's Make America Great Again PAC and over $1.2 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund.

• GEO also contributed $500,000 to Trump's inauguration.

• GEO Group's PAC became the first to max out donations to Trump's campaign in February 2024.

The modest investment by the private prison companies net billions of federal dollars annually under contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In 2022 alone, The GEO Group made $1.05 billion, and CoreCivic made $552.2 million from these contracts, according to The New York Times. 

RELATED: FilAm charges medical abuse at Georgia detention facility

These companies are actively expanding their capacity to meet the growing demand for detention beds, with some expecting to more than double their revenue through increased capacity by building new facilities such as the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida's Everglades,  those being built on military bases such as Texas' Fort Bliss and reopening idle facilities such as Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay,  further boosting the profitability of these companies.

One company CEO estimated that reopening idle facilities could generate an additional $500-600 million in revenue, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

The shadowy world of profit-making private prisons needs to be more transparent because it is taxpayers' money being used that benefits no one except the corporate executives and investors in a business model that prefers to remain outside of public scrutiny.

While Chaofeng Ge's death, which is still being investigate as a suicide, is tragic, it helps to shed light on a profitable business model that most Americans do not know exist.

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