MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – A company that manages detention facilities says a Netflix series is falsely accusing it of treating immigrants in inhumane ways.
GEO Group and GEO Transport filed a lawsuit May 27 in Florida federal court against Netflix over the series Messiah. By using scenes of an immigrant detention facility in which guards and vehicles have GEO’s trademarks and name, Netflix is falsely accusing the company of running subpar camps.
GEO manages and operates facilities on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It says it is accused of depriving immigrants of beds, sunshine and educational opportunities.
“Unlike in Messiah, GEO does not house people in overcrowded rooms with chain-link cages at its facilities, but provides beds, bedding, air conditioning, indoor and outdoor recreational spaces, soccer fields, classrooms, libraries and other amenities that rebut Messiah’s defamatory falsehoods,” the lawsuit says.
Netflix broadcast these misrepresentations with actual malice, the lawsuit says.