ICE inked a $9 million contract with a Montco firearms manufacturer — and is spending $17 million at Philly area businesses

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded more than $17 million in contracts, mostly to businesses, in the Philadelphia area since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, with more than half of that money going to a firearms manufacturer in Montgomery County.

The local data, compiled by The Appeal, highlights the Trump administration’s spending related to raids and enforcement operations as the agency carries out the president’s mass deportation agenda, including its purchases of weaponry.

Geissele Automatics, a firearms manufacturer based in North Wales, has the largest and perhaps most consequential contract with ICE in the Philadelphia area.

The company — which specializes in selling high-grade, AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons and parts to consumers, law enforcement agencies, and the military — entered a contract with ICE for nearly $9.1 million in September 2025, according to federal data.

The payment was for the delivery of “precision long guns and accessories” to support ICE agents as well as the agency’s tactical programs, the data show. It’s unclear where the equipment is being used.

Neither the company’s founder, Bill Geissele, nor a representative from the company’s sales team returned a request for comment.

Nationwide, ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has dramatically increased spending on firearms in Trump’s second term, according to a report earlier this year from U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), leading to outcry from Democratic officials and voters who say the agency has become a militarized force with little oversight or accountability.

That outrage continued this month when Democrats voiced their opposition to ICE’s plan to provide ICE officers with electric shock gloves. Schiff’s oversight report, released earlier this year, called ICE and CBP’s contracts for weaponry a “misuse of taxpayer dollars to maximally arm federal immigration agents.”

A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that $17 million in contracts in the Philadelphia region is “simply not accurate” and “conflates nationwide ICE contracts” with spending in the area.

“ICE contracts with vendors across the country to support its law enforcement mission. The existence of a federal contract, a vendor located in a particular region, or a nationwide contract vehicle does not mean that the full value of that contract was spent in Philadelphia,” the spokesperson said

“Reporting should accurately distinguish between nationwide contract values, vendor locations, places of performance, and actual federal expenditures before presenting a misleading figure as fact,” they added.

The details on the contracts come as residents and advocates in the Philadelphia region and nationwide are continuing to remain vigilant of ICE’s presence in their communities. Earlier this year, ICE struck deals to retrofit warehouses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey into mass detention centers before later backtracking after residents and leaders in both states voiced opposition.

Bill Geissele — who hosts the manufacturer’s podcast Shots Fired in Anger —has donated to Republican elected officials in Pennsylvania, including U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick and U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser. Geissele’s contract, while not the company’s first with the federal government, is by far the most significant contract between the gun manufacturer and the federal agency on record.

In August 2024 for example, under former President Joe Biden’s administration, Geissele Automatics entered a $12,224 contract with ICE for equipment to support a “sniper sustainment” course, according to data compiled by The Appeal.

By 2025, when Trump returned to the White House and significantly ramped up ICE operations nationwide, those contracts ballooned.

On top of the $9.1 million contract that year, Geissele was paid $27,936 to provide training rifles and magazines for the agency’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs, as well as $16,544 for rifles and accessories required for testing and evaluation.

ICE also took its spending across the river to Burlington County in New Jersey, where it awarded George J. Petronis Enterprises Inc., a gun shop, slightly more than $505,000 since the start of Trump’s second term for training ammunition and ink cartridges for 9mm training ammo to support ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs in Fort Benning, Ga.

George J. Petronis Enterprises Inc. did not return an email requesting comment.

The Appeal’s dashboard also shows a contract for rental of a firing range between ICE and the county’s fire academy, located in Conshohocken, that has existed since at least 2021. But Montgomery County officials said Friday that the contract is with the broader Department of Homeland Security — which ICE is a part of — and not with the federal immigration enforcement agency directly.

County Commissioner Jamila Winder, a Democrat, said that the academy is used by local, state, and federal agencies for law enforcement training but “this facility is not available for training for those engaged in immigration enforcement activities.”

Other contracts highlighted by The Appeal dashboard may also be directly tied to DHS, instead of ICE.

Earlier this year, Montgomery County’s Board of Commissioners passed a resolution restricting federal immigration enforcement from using county property or resources for noncriminal investigations.

Other local contracts with ICE include a roughly $50,000 contract with the Philadelphia Parking Authority for rental spaces for 16 vehicles and more than $78,000 to Ricoh USA Inc., an office technology company headquartered in Chester County that was also used under the Biden administration. Coast2Coast Shredding LLC, which is headquartered in Montgomery County but shreds documents in California, received more than $94,000 from ICE.