Last month ICE agents shot and killed two immigrants in separate street encounters, again spotlighting the agency's lack of body cameras.
Days after the shootings, federal contracting records reviewed by Scripps News show the Department of Homeland Security put in an order for more than $30 million worth of body cameras from Axon Enterprises, one of the many publicly traded companies with stocks that appear in President Trump’s recently filed 2025 financial disclosure report.
The 927-page document shows $1.26 million in 24 trades of Axon stock in Trump investment accounts.
Axon is just one company Trump listed as buying and selling stock that also received government contracts to carry out his immigration agenda.
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While there is no evidence the stock trades directly influenced any contracts or company decisions, ethics experts still see a conflict of interest.
“Not only is he invested in companies that he can have an impact on, because of the policies that he implements or that he talks about, but also he and his administration have a direct impact on the profit margin of the company by handing out federal contracts,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight.
The president’s disclosure filing also reports the purchase and sale of stock in the two main companies under contract to operate ICE detention centers, including 14 stock trades worth up to $625,000 in The GEO Group in a year the company touted the “largest amount of new business” in its history.
Trump also reported small investments in CoreCivic, another large detention center owner, and Amentum Holdings, a company that took over the contract for the sprawling Camp East Montana detention center in El Paso, Texas.
Trump's biggest investment in a corporation getting immigration contracts appears to be Palantir, the software and A.I. company building technology to aid ICE investigations.
The president’s financial report shows 47 stock trades in Palantir equaling up to $4.1 million.
Scripps News reached out to all of the companies named in this report.
CoreCivic, which operates ICE detention centers, told us because its shares are traded on the open market, it has no knowledge beforehand or control over who buys or sells stocks.
“No investor's purchase or sale of our stock has had any bearing on any business decision by this company,” said a statement from Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs at CoreCivic.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said all of President Trump’s investments are managed by third-party financial institutions, not the president himself.
“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public,” Kelly said, echoing similar statements by the president in the past.
"I purposely never speak to any of the people that run the money,” Trump said during a talk with reporters on July 1. “But they’re big institutions and they invest in whatever they invest in.”
A reporter asked how he would respond to critics who say he is profiting off the presidency.
"Well you know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market is going up. Everybody is profiting,” Trump responded.
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The president’s stocks in immigration companies are just a sliver of his reported 2025 earnings, most from cryptocurrency investments and other non-stock assets.
Presidents are not prohibited from owning stocks in office but the trades still concern for ethics watchdogs.
“For as long as the president is allowed to trade stocks and invest in these other ways, there are always going to be people who question every decision that he makes as a result because of that possibility to game the system,” Hedtler-Gaudette said.
