Trump HIT with New ICE SCANDAL over Personal FAVORS and PROFIT?!?!
May 17, 2026
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14:12Now PlayingTrump HIT with New ICE SCANDAL over Personal FAVORS and PROFIT?!?!
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as posted by the channelAttorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian unpack a story that reads like a Scorsese script. David Venturella, just named acting ICE director, spent 12 years as a senior VP at GEO Group, the largest private prison contractor in the country, earning $6 million, before returning to ICE to oversee the very contracts he once lobbied for. Since his return, GEO has won $520 million in new or expanded contracts, its most successful year ever, with a 700% increase in profits. But the private prison revolving door is only half the story. According to the New York Times, Venturella personally called the ICE Miami field office as a "favor for a friend of the president" to ensure agents picked up Amanda Ungaro, the Brazilian ex-girlfriend of Trump special envoy Paolo Zampolli, before she could post bail on fraud charges. Zampolli, who is credited with introducing Trump to Melania at the Kit Kat Club in 1998 and whose name appears in the Epstein files, was in a custody battle with Ungaro over their teenage son. She was detained for over three months and deported to Brazil. Brian and Shant connect it to the 86-year-old French widow deported after her stepson tipped off ICE. Half of Congress's $75 billion immigration appropriation is earmarked for detention expansion, and Venturella controls who gets those contracts. At least 18 detainees have died in ICE custody in the first four months of 2026.
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