WA health department sues over denied entry to Tacoma ICE facility

The Washington State Department of Health says it has not been able to investigate what could be a “full-blown public health crisis” at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Tacoma.

In a legal challenge filed July 30 against the private contractor that runs the facility, health inspectors say they were denied access to inspect living conditions. Since April 2023, the department said it has received more than 700 health complaints from the undocumented people incarcerated at the facility. Among them are disturbing reports that employees failed to address life-threatening medical conditions, and served dirty food and water.

“Detainees have complained that the food provided by GEO contains foreign objects including burned plastic, metal string, rope, and splinters,” the lawsuit said. ” … Bathrooms are rarely cleaned, the toilets are often blocked, floors go unswept, mold is visible, and the facility smells like a dirty bathroom.”

Now in federal court, the lawsuit is asking the courts to force The GEO Group to provide access to the facility, called the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which has long been accused of inhuman conditions. GEO admitted last year it used “chemical agents” against people in custody; in March, a 61-year-old man who spent years in solitary confinement died in custody; and several reports have emerged about attempted suicides.

A spokesperson for the health department said inspectors have tried to enter the facility four times.

“We hope the facility will allow entry for our department to complete an investigation and offer resources to improve conditions for individuals in the facility,” spokesperson Roberto Bonaccorso wrote in a statement.

The GEO Group, the private contractor and defendant, said in court documents that it was ICE officers who denied access to the inspectors, not GEO employees. It called the health-related complaints “spurious” and “unsubstantiated,” saying most of them originated from an advocacy group that wanted to see the center shut down.

The GEO Group did not immediately respond to questions.

This is the second time the department has tried to sue for access. In the first case, the court ruled inspectors did not invoke the correct statute in order to inspect. The state Department of Labor and Industries recently won the right to access the building to examine working conditions.

After being denied entry to the secured part of the facility last month, health inspectors were told they could sample the water in the lobby bathroom of the facility, according to the department. In a sworn statement, an inspector said conditions were not suitable to conduct an accurate water quality test. As he performed the test, he said he was “under intense scrutiny by the facility staff and the supervisor, who asked questions about every step and every chemical/reagent I used.”