>> There been a number of protests at various facilities that are imprisoning and detaining
migrant children and asylum seekers.
And so the CEO of GEO Group.
This is a for profit prison that runs and operates most of these facilities, is upset
about this protest.
And actually sent out and internal email explaining to employees what's going on and how they
are not bad guys, they are actually the good guys.
There's all sorts of myths about them.
Now I'm going to read from the actual email which TYT investigates obtained.
Great reporting by Ken Klippenstein as always ahere's how it goes.
George Zoley is the CEO who wrote this.
On August 12, 2019, our Corporate Office in Boca Raton was protested by Never Again Action.
Never Again Action is a mobilization of different affiliated Jewish organizers whose goal is
to shut down ICE.
This new organization sprang up after congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to ICE processing
centers as concentration camps.
So she was mentioned and she was blamed for these protests.
But he doesn't go into the treatment of these migrants or the two dozen migrants who have
died in these facilities.
He doesn't talk about that at all, he just talks about AOC and how it's her fault that
these protests were taking place.
Shown the GEO Group memo, a spokesperson for Never Again Action told TYT, Direct action
works.
Damn right it does.
I love it.
I love the protesters, love them.
They're so good.
So more from the email.
Again, this is George Zoley from GEO Group.
False narratives and deliberate mischaracterizations were the basis for these recent events.
Misguided individuals intimidated our employees and defamed the American flag at a time when
we recently commemorated the birth of our nation and the 75th anniversary of our landing
at Normandy.
Okay, that's hilarious.
So these guys, you've seen what happened to Never Again Action.
One of the employees in one of the detention centers runs over them with a truck, right?
And then of course, the Republicans came and started blaming the protesters saying, well,
what were they doing attacking that poor track wall sitting on the ground.
They deserve to be run over and have their lives broken, etc.
So now, the guy is saying, can you believe that they are attacking the flag on the 75th
anniversary of Normandy?
Where did Normandy come from?
We're talking about private prisons and detention centers and immigration.
And he's like, on 60th anniversary of Arbor Day, can you believe they did this?
What, where hell did that come from?
It's just so pathetic.
And on this 243rd day past Valentine's Day.
I can't believe that they would do this.
Let alone, how many anniversaries have there been, Mother's Day and yet they have done
this in the flag.
What flag?
Okay, by the way, they didn't defame the flag.
Of course they didn't, the guy is making everything up.
Yeah, so apparently some protesters had taken the American flag down, and he considered
that defaming the American flag.
Besides which 2,000 people are dead because of these facilities and the fact that they've
been brutalized and neglected in these facilities.
Six of them were kids.
So I mean, look, I get their hard feelings over the American flag.
But American lives are, I should say lives, should be more important.
He doesn't want to talk about that, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's an obvious diversion tactic and never get actually didn't do that anyway.
Right.
So he's talking about never giving an action in AOC.
And then reversal completely different protests or someone apparently took down an American
flag.
And be like, there is 12 people dead here.
Somebody took down the flag, and right around the corner from Labor Day, can you believe
that?
Ignore the dead people.
Organizations that have threatened our employees or taken violent actions against or company
have also directly used the same terminology as Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, including concentration
camps.
Look, these protesters are Jewish Americans, many of them are Jewish Americans.
And so they understand what concentration camps are, which is why they have sprung into
action.
So to blame everything on AOC and to use her as a scapegoat rather than taking personal
responsibility for the brutalizing of migrants is ridiculous.
And also, a spokesperson said quote, we don't play a role in passing criminal justice or
immigration laws, and we have never advocated for or against criminal justice or immigration
enforcement policies.
That is a flat out lie.
For-profit prisons in this country have not only pushed for tough-on-crime policies when
it comes to undocumented immigrants.
They have pushed for tough-on-crime policies when it comes to you.
When it comes to me, when it comes to all Americans participating in nonviolent behavior
like smoking pot, okay?
They have a long history of pushing for and imprisoning, nonviolent drug offenders.
And in the case of migrants, let me just know GEO Group spends at least $1 million each
year since 2016 lobbying federal government on issues like homeland security appropriations.
In 2016 GEO Group subsidiary contributed $225,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC and an additional
$250,000 for the president's inaugural committee.
What happened to lobbying us?
Well, golly, gee, I've got the vapors, I would never do that, especially not on the 75th
anniversary of Normandy.
Okay, no, Ken Klippenstein did a great job of not only finding the documents here but
also giving you the context of the fact that they, in fact, have done a ton of lobbying.
And I wanna thank the audience as always.
You made our reporting team possible.
They keep breaking these stories one after another after another.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez then retweeted the story, that's got 30,000 likes on it.
And now being looked at by all the media, etc.
And you guys made that happen.
Without you guys we wouldn't have Jonathan Larsen, Ken Klippenstein, or any of the reporters
we've ever had.
And I wanna say one last thing which is doubling down on what Ana said.
Guys, private prisons have a profit motive to lock up Americans.
Right or wrong, it doesn't really matter as far as their profit motive is concerned.
And they don't have a second code.
Their only code is maximize profit.
You know how that the markets work.
So when you create a private prison, the only way to maximize profit is to stuff more people
in those prisons.
And if the people in the prisons are guilty or innocent, who cares, you're still maximizing
profit.
In fact, if you're not pushing for laws that are quote, unquote, tough-on-crime.
If you're not pushing to imprison more Americans, right or wrong, you should be fired as the
CEO of that group cuz you're not maximizing profit.
And so they logically, in this insane system that we have, pour millions of dollars to
buy corrupt largely Republican politicians.
And if any Democrat takes money from a private prison, it should immediately be primary and
written out of town and tarred and feathered, okay?
And when they cry, are you going to ruin our industry where we get to lock up Americans
to make money?
Yes.
Goddamn right we are.
We're gonna drive your right out of business.
So you can't lock up any more innocent Americans or any other people and have them treat them
with this kind of outrageous system and centers that you have.
Yes, we will not allow you to make money off of imprisoning and taking our liberty away
from us.
Hell, no.