Tom Steyer managed $90M stake in a firm running Central CA ICE facility. 'It was a mistake'

Tom Steyer wants you to know he cares about climate change, workers' rights, and corporate accountability. What he'd rather you forget: his hedge fund made millions investing in the private prison company that operates one of California's most notorious ICE detention centers.

According to securities filings, Farallon Capital Management—the San Francisco hedge fund Steyer founded and ran until 2012—held 2.27 million shares of GEO Group stock worth approximately $90 million. GEO Group operates Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Bakersfield, California, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained thousands of immigrants under conditions that advocates describe as inhumane.

The investment came to light during Steyer's 2018 California gubernatorial campaign, when his progressive credentials were already under scrutiny. Steyer, who has spent hundreds of millions on Democratic causes and climate activism, dismissed the stake as an error in judgment. "It was a mistake," he told reporters, claiming the investment occurred while he was still at Farallon but offering no explanation for why a self-described progressive would park nearly $100 million in a company profiting from mass incarceration and immigration detention.

Mesa Verde, the facility at the center of this contradiction, has faced repeated allegations of medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, and abuse. Detainees have reported being denied adequate healthcare, subjected to solitary confinement for minor infractions, and held in overcrowded cells. GEO Group, which operates the facility under a contract with ICE, has consistently fought transparency efforts and accountability measures.

The timeline matters. Steyer founded Farallon in 1986 and built it into one of the world's most successful hedge funds before stepping down in 2012 to focus on political activism. But even after leaving day-to-day management, Steyer retained financial ties to Farallon's investments. The GEO Group stake was part of a broader pattern: Farallon also invested in coal companies, private prisons, and other industries Steyer would later campaign against.

This is not a story about hypocrisy alone. It is a story about how America's wealthiest liberals can profit from systems of oppression while positioning themselves as champions of justice. Steyer has donated more than $250 million to Democratic candidates and progressive causes since 2016. He founded NextGen America to mobilize young voters around climate action. He ran for president in 2020 on a platform that included criminal justice reform and immigrant rights.

None of that changes the fact that his money came, in part, from caging people.

The private prison industry has exploded under both Democratic and Republican administrations, turning human suffering into shareholder value. GEO Group and its main competitor, CoreCivic, have spent millions lobbying for harsher immigration enforcement and longer detention periods. They have fought wage laws, arguing that detainees performing labor in their facilities are not entitled to minimum wage. They have resisted oversight and stonewalled investigations into deaths in custody.

Steyer's investment in this system was not passive. Farallon held enough GEO Group stock to influence corporate decisions. The fund could have pushed for transparency, accountability, or humane conditions. Instead, it cashed out when the political optics became inconvenient.

When pressed on the investment during his gubernatorial campaign, Steyer offered the standard billionaire defense: he did not personally manage every investment decision. This is technically true and fundamentally dishonest. Steyer built Farallon. He set its investment strategy. He profited from its returns. Claiming ignorance about where that money came from is an insult to voters' intelligence.

California voters ultimately rejected Steyer's gubernatorial bid, choosing Gavin Newsom instead. But Steyer's political career did not end. He spent $200 million on his 2020 presidential campaign, positioning himself as the climate candidate who could take on corporate power. He dropped out after failing to gain traction, but his money continues to shape Democratic politics.

The Mesa Verde facility remains open. GEO Group continues to operate detention centers across the country, housing immigrants in conditions that human rights organizations have compared to torture. ICE continues to expand its detention infrastructure, relying on private companies to do the dirty work of family separation and mass deportation.

And Tom Steyer continues to present himself as a progressive leader, hoping voters will forget where his fortune came from.

This is the con at the heart of American liberalism: the belief that you can profit from injustice and atone for it with campaign donations. That you can invest in caging children and offset it by funding climate research. That wealth accumulated through exploitation can be laundered into political credibility.

Steyer calls his GEO Group investment "a mistake." The real mistake is thinking we will not notice.