TACOMA, Wash. — A federal jury determined that The GEO Group must pay minimum wage — rather than $1 a day — to immigration detainees who perform tasks like cooking and cleaning at its for-profit detention center in Tacoma.
The Attorney General's Office successfully argued The GEO Group is not exempt from Washington's minimum wage laws because those detained at the facility are not criminals or part of a treatment or rehabilitation program. The detention center houses people who are awaiting civil immigration proceedings.
The verdict came Wednesday in U.S. District Court in a second trial over the issue. The first trial ended in June with a deadlocked jury.
The jury will now consider how much the immigrant detainees who worked at the facility are owed. U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan will determine what The GEO Group must pay Washington state for its claim that the company unjustly enriched itself. The money will reimburse detainee workers and Tacoma community members, according to the Washington State Attorney General's Office.
Moving forward, the company must pay its workers Washington's minimum wage, which comes out to $13.69 an hour.
“This multi-billion dollar corporation illegally exploited the people it detains to line its own pockets,” state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “Today’s victory sends a clear message: Washington will not tolerate corporations that get rich violating the rights of the people.”
Since 2005, The Geo Group would pay workers $1 a day, or in some cases, extra food, for work required to keep the facility operational, according to the Attorney General's Office. Workers detained at the facility prepare and serve food, run laundry services, perform facilities maintenance and clean nearly the entire facility except for areas where detainees are barred from entering.
At the trial, several former and current GEO staff testified the company chose to pay detainee workers only $1 a day, despite knowing they could offer more, according to the Attorney General's Office .
Beginning on Thursday, lawyers from a Seattle-based law firm will bring a class action suit in front of the same jury, seeking millions of dollars in wages owed to workers from 2014 through the present day, according to the release.
