A private immigration prison in Tacoma must pay $23 million in back wages and penalties for violating Washington's minimum wage law, after it paid detainees as little as $1 a day, a federal appeals …
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A private immigration prison in Tacoma must pay $23 million in back wages and penalties for violating Washington's minimum wage law, after it paid detainees as little as $1 a day, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, is the latest defeat for GEO Group, the nearly $5 billion company that operates the prison, in a lawsuit that dates to 2017.
The Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, the only privately owned detention center in Washington, can hold up to 1,575 people as they await review of their immigration status and potential deportation. GEO Group operates the prison under a 10-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that pays the company at least $700 million.
Under its contract, which runs through 2025, GEO is required to provide a voluntary work program to detainees.
GEO Group relied on those barely paid laborers to operate the facility, the appeals court wrote. In the kitchen, it employed 13 full-time employees but needed nearly 100 detainees a day to prepare and serve meals and clean up. One full-time employee was responsible for all the facility's laundry, supervising 15 detainees a day.
Without the detainee work program, GEO Group estimated it would have had to hire 85 additional full-time employees to run the facility.
"GEO is a private for-profit employer that operates the NWIPC for its shareholders' economic gain," Judge William A. Fletcher wrote for the majority. "The (minimum wage) applies equally to all private employers, including GEO."
The panel split 2-1, with Fletcher, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, joined in the majority by Judge Mary Murguia, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
GEO argued that forcing a federal contractor to pay the state minimum wage violated the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which prohibits states from interfering with the operations of the federal government.
Judge Mark Bennett, an appointee of President-elect Donald Trump, wrote in dissent that the decision would require ICE to operate its own prison in Washington, something it does not do; contract with the state to run the prison; or have no immigration detention facilities in Washington.
Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, who took office this week, said the decision showed that "companies that break our state laws will be held accountable.
"For-profit businesses in Washington must all follow the same rule — if you employ workers, you must pay them fairly," Brown said in a prepared statement.
GEO, in a prepared statement, said it "strongly disagreed" with the ruling and would continue to appeal, either to the full 9th Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Simply put, we believe the State of Washington has unconstitutionally violated the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution," GEO wrote.
Then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson and a group of detainees sued GEO Group in 2017, arguing the company, in paying detainees just $1 a day for their labor, violated the state's minimum wage law. A jury found for Ferguson and the detainees in 2021, ordering GEO Group to pay $17 million in back wages. A federal judge added on another $5.9 million, which he said were GEO Group's unjustly earned profits.
GEO Group appealed to the 9th Circuit, which then asked the Washington state Supreme Court to clarify state law. The state Supreme Court did so in 2023, finding for Ferguson and the detainees.
GEO Group has argued detainees aren't "employees" under state law and that it shouldn't be forced to pay minimum wage when the state doesn't pay minimum wage in its own prisons.
The state minimum wage law exempts "state, county or municipal" detention facilities.
The majority wrote that nothing in GEO's contract with the federal government bars it from paying detainees minimum wage.
"Indeed, the plain language of the contract requires quite the opposite," Fletcher wrote. "The contract requires GEO to comply with 'all applicable federal, state, and local laws and standards,' including 'labor laws and codes.'"
The prison in Tacoma has long been contentious. It has seen hunger strikes and protests over food and sanitation conditions. GEO Group has confirmed it used "chemical agents" — possibly tear gas — after discovering contraband razor blades.
A 2021 state law sought to shut down the facility, the only privately run prison in the state. But that law, which passed with some bipartisan support, was rendered toothless by a federal appeals court decision in California that said a similar state law there violated the Constitution by interfering with federal government powers.
Washington conceded in 2023 that it was bound by the California ruling, and would not enforce the law.
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