The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a decision against The GEO Group, affirming that the company violated labor laws at the Northwest ICE Processing Center. This ruling supports Attorney General Nick Brown's stance that GEO exploited detainee workers through an illegal $1-per-day work program.
Since 2005, detainees were paid below Washington’s minimum wage for performing essential tasks such as laundry, food preparation, and cleaning within the detention center. The court ruled that "GEO is a private for-profit employer" and found no legal barriers preventing GEO from paying minimum wage to detainees.
Attorney General Brown stated, “For-profit businesses in Washington must all follow the same rule — if you employ workers, you must pay them fairly.” A lawsuit filed by the Attorney General’s Wing Luke Civil Rights Division in 2017 led to a jury awarding $17.3 million to over 10,000 individuals detained at the facility. Additionally, a federal judge ordered GEO to pay $5.9 million to the state for unjust enrichment.
The decision mandates that GEO pays its workers at least Washington’s minimum wage and fulfills a total of $23.2 million in judgments.
The case was managed by Deputy Solicitor General Marsha Chien and others from the Attorney General’s Office. Adam Berger and Jennifer Bennett represented the class of workers who recovered back wages.
GEO utilized immigrant detainee labor for non-security functions at Tacoma's Northwest ICE Processing Center until 2021 when they paid only $1 per day or provided extra food instead of fair wages. Lead plaintiff Goodluck Nwauzor was among those affected during his eight-month detainment while awaiting asylum status approval.
The Northwest ICE Processing Center has faced various controversies including deaths, hunger strikes over living conditions, and lawsuits concerning health inspections. Owned by Florida-based GEO since 2005, it remains one of the largest immigration detention centers in the U.S., with contracts running through 2025 projecting significant revenue.
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