When George Zoley, the founder of a private company that manages more than 20 federal immigration facilities testified before Congress in 2020, he spoke about how his own immigrant experience shaped his life.
Zoley, the CEO and executive chairman of private prison firm The GEO Group, was born in 1950 in a house with no plumbing or electricity in the remote town of Florina in northwestern Greece, according to a transcript of his testimony at a hearing on ICE contractors’ response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Fortunately, in 1953 my family received approval to immigrate to the United States where we traveled by ship landing in New York City and where we were processed through Ellis Island,” Zoley said, referring to the fabled American gateway for more than 12 million immigrants who arrived there for processing between 1892 and 1954.
“My own immigrant story has shaped the core values that have guided my entire life and career, which include the principle of never placing profit above the value of people,” said the CEO of the nation’s largest for-profit jailer of immigrants and ICE’s biggest contractor.
A general view of the Great Hall at Ellis Island, New York circa 1880. Fotosearch/Getty Images
