On Wednesday, a federal appeals court declined to grant The GEO Group, the operator of the immigrant detention center in Tacoma, another opportunity to argue for its practice of paying detainees as little as $1 per day. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld its earlier ruling, supporting lower court decisions that determined GEO violated Washington state minimum wage laws.
Dissenting from the majority opinion, Judge Patrick Bumatay, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, expressed concern about the broader implications of the ruling, stating, “the effect of this decision will be widespread.” The ruling confirms that GEO Group, based in Florida, is liable for over $23 million in damages awarded by a jury and a federal judge. The company may now consider appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. This case, initiated by detainees and the state of Washington, dates back to 2017.
Since 2005, GEO Group has operated the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. Under a contract signed in 2015, the company secured at least $700 million to manage the facility over a decade. The center detains individuals held by federal immigration enforcement for civil violations as they await potential deportation or release.
Previously, GEO ran a voluntary work program for detainees, where many were paid just $1 per day— the minimum allowed by federal regulations for work in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. In cases where labor needed to be incentivized, the pay could increase to $5.
This program reportedly allowed GEO to avoid hiring 85 full-time staff members, as detainees were tasked with cooking, serving food, washing dishes, doing laundry, and cleaning the facility. Court rulings have mandated that GEO’s federal contract requires adherence to “all applicable federal, state, and local laws and standards,” including labor regulations and state minimum wage laws.
GEO Group argued that federal contractors should not be compelled to follow Washington’s minimum wage laws due to the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which posits that federal law supersedes state law. The company claimed that Washington cannot impose different regulations on the detention center compared to state-run facilities, as the state’s minimum wage law exempts prisons and jails.
In 2021, a U.S. District Court jury found GEO Group in violation of Washington’s minimum wage statute, awarding nearly $17.3 million in back wages, with an additional $5.9 million in penalties imposed by a federal judge. The work program has been suspended since the ruling. Between 2010 and 2018, GEO reportedly generated approximately $20 million annually from operating the 1,575-bed detention center. In 2023, Washington’s state Supreme Court also sided with the detainees and the state, ruling that the detained workers should be classified as employees.
In this latest appeal, GEO requested either a rehearing by the original three-judge panel or a full review by the entire 9th Circuit Court, a request also supported by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. However, the court denied these requests on Wednesday.
