TACOMA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - A jury trial is set to begin today against a privately operated detention center on claims it fails to pay federal detainees minimum wage.
Democrat State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued The GEO Group, which provides residential centers on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alleging it should be treating detainees who volunteer to work for $1 per daily task as employees and therefore entitled to a minimum wage.
The case was filed originally in Pierce County Superior Court in 2017, but removed to federal court by GEO. It is proceeding as a class action.
The state will argue GEO was "unjustly enriched" at its Northwest ICE Processing Center (known as the Northwest Detention Center from 2005-2019) from 2005 to the present.
GEO will argue that it operates a Voluntary Work Program (VWP) as a requirement of its contract with ICE, to reduce idleness and promote good order. The program has been in place for more than three decades under both Democratic and Republican administrations and its funding is through congressional appropriations. Volunteer tasks on average last less than two hours, according to GEO.
GEO also is expected to tell jurors that pursuant to federal law and under its contract with ICE, it cannot hire detainees as employees. GEO argues that more than 100 courts throughout the country have held that prisoners and detainees are not employees and that no court has ever held that detainees are employees and entitled to minimum wage.
District Judge Robert J. Bryan presides at the Western District of Washington.
This is a second trial in the case. Trial had been continued indefinitely due to concerns over the spread of Covid, according to Bryan's pretrial order, but then was tried via Zoom and ended in a mistrial.
The first phase will determine liability, and if plaintiffs are successful a second phase will consider backpay and attorneys' fees.