Tom Steyer once managed $90M stake in firm now running CA ICE facility. ‘It was a mistake’
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- Under Tom Steyer, hedge fund invested nearly $90M in Corrections Corp. of America, or CCA.
- CCA is now CoreCivic and runs California’s largest ICE detention facility.
- Steyer calls the investment a mistake and cites it as motive for reform work.
Under the management of Tom Steyer, a hedge fund called Farallon Capital Management invested almost $90 million in the company that today operates California’s largest immigration detention center located in Kern County.
It was a move that the billionaire running for governor says he now looks back on as “a mistake” — but it’s also given ammunition to his fellow Democrats who are among the top contenders in this year’s race.
Steyer founded Farallon in the 1980s and managed the company until he decided to walk away from it in 2012. The company in 2004 began buying shares in Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA. The investment lasted fewer than two years, but in that time Farallon came to own more than 2 million shares of stock in CCA.
That company, which changed its name to CoreCivic in 2016, operates more than 70 “correctional and reentry facilities” across the country, according to its website. In addition to the Kern County facility, CoreCivic also operates an ICE facility with 1,358 beds in San Diego County.
Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded CoreCivic a $130 million contract to operate the California City Immigration Processing Center, a 2,560-bed facility located in a former Kern County prison. Many of the immigrants taken into ICE custody in Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley end up detained there.
In the six months since its opening, immigrants at the facility have protested what they described as “inhumane” conditions, and seven people have sued ICE over alleged medical neglect at the facility — though CoreCivic has always denied the accusations.
“We never had anything to do with running the company,” Steyer told The Bee on Tuesday before meeting with voters in Fresno. “But it was a mistake to think that that was a place where it was decent to make money.”
Worth $2.4 billion according to Forbes, Steyer has spent millions of dollars on progressive causes since leaving Farallon after managing the hedge fund for more than two decades. The candidate has positioned himself among the most progressive candidates in a crowded field of Democrats running for governor this year. He has been averaging 4th place in the polls. He is trailing Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton and fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell, but he;s ahead of Democrat Katie Porter.
Swalwell and Porter have accused Steyer of profiting from the expansion of private prisons and immigration detention centers.
Steyer told The Bee on Tuesday that his past involvement in the CoreCivic investment led to his work against mass incarceration. He said that work has earned him the endorsement of Smart Justice, which Steyer described as California’s “most progressive” organization focused on reforming the criminal justice system.
Federal business filings show Farallon held almost $90M in Corecivic in 2005
Farallon’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show the company’s ownership of CoreCivic stock ballooned in a short period of time and then quickly dissipated as public criticism grew.
A holdings report from 2004 shows Farallon bought 53,100 shares of stock in CoreCivic valued at $1.89 million in the first quarter of that year. Farallon managed part of Yale University’s $12 billion endowment at the time, and students and staff quickly began to call on the Ivy League school to divest from Steyer’s company.
By the end of the year, federal business filings show, Farallon’s stock in CoreCivic had grown to 1.3 million shares valued at $52.59 million. By mid-2005, Farallon had $89.1 million invested in 2.27 million shares of CoreCivic stock, records show. Steyer held 10% ownership of Farallon, records show.
Subsequent quarterly reports show Farallon’s holdings in the detention company began falling until the hedge fund completed its sell-off of CoreCivic stock by early 2006.
Steyer told Politico in 2016 that his company chose to sell the stock because it had “heard the concerns of student leaders.”
Amid criticism, Steyer says investment led to ‘turning point’ in his life
In a March social media post, Bay Area Congressman Eric Swalwell, the gubernatorial race’s leading Democratic candidate, accused Steyer of “profiting off the misery of immigrants — including children — through his investment in ICE detention camps.”
Former Orange County Congresswoman Katie Porter has said much the same on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Steyer on Tuesday told The Bee that although he sees Farallon’s past investment in CoreCivic as a mistake, it also led him to change his life.
“That was a critical reason and a critical turning point for me to say, this job is pushing me into places I don’t want to be,” he said.
Steyer sold his ownership stake in Farallon in 2012 to focus on “work for the community,” he said.
He has since spent millions on NextGen America, an organization focused on supporting progressive causes. That organization has worked with Smart Justice, the criminal justice reform organization that has endorsed Steyer.
Smart Justice founder and director Anne Irwin said in a statement to The Bee that “Tom Steyer has proven himself a thoughtful and steadfast champion for fairness and justice.”
“We have worked side-by-side with Tom Steyer’s organization, NextGen, to advance meaningful reforms for nearly a decade — including landmark legislation to root out racial bias in the criminal legal system and end the cruel practice of solitary confinement,” Irwin said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 4:29 PM.
