In May, executives from the giant public relations firm Edelman went to Florida to pitch a potential client: a private prisons company with contracts from the Trump administration to run immigrant detention centers.

The GEO Group, a multibillion-dollar business based in Boca Raton, was being battered by negative media attention in the uproar over reports that the United States was separating migrant children from their parents at the Mexican border. Lawmakers were demanding access to detention facilities.

The Edelman team, which included a former Trump administration spokeswoman, proposed to reshape the GEO Group’s public image by “proactively correcting the record” with a new narrative “that tells the relevant stories directly to stakeholders,” according to a presentation document reviewed by The New York Times.

After landing the job, Edelman was slated to start work in July. But employees at the firm objected to the contract, and Edelman dropped the GEO Group account.