State workplace inspectors will have access to immigration detention center in Tacoma

Washington state will be able to inspect workplace conditions at a federal immigration detention center in Tacoma, under a recently issued court order.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle approved a permanent injunction last week barring the facility’s operator, The GEO Group, from denying Washington Department of Labor and Industries inspectors access to the site. Both sides in the case agreed to the injunction along with other terms to resolve the case.

The agency inspected the detention center in July after Settle signed off on a preliminary injunction that mirrors the permanent one. Inspectors did not discover any violations, Matt Ross, an agency spokesman said Tuesday.

While last week’s order ends the dispute between Labor and Industries and GEO – at least for now – the company and Washington state are still sparring with other lawsuits over how much authority the state has to regulate the controversial Northwest ICE Processing Center.

In this case, Settle noted that GEO’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement calls for the company to operate the Tacoma facility in compliance with state health and safety laws and that Labor and Industries is charged with enforcing workplace safety standards.

“L&I’s statutory duty to ensure that workplace conditions at the NWIPC are safe is plainly in the public interest,” Settle wrote in a July 1 order granting the preliminary injunction, which provided the legal underpinning for the permanent order approved last week.

“The Court will not impair the State’s inherent and broad power to promote public health, safety, and welfare,” Settle added.

GEO did not respond to requests for comment.

Labor and Industries officials attempted to inspect the detention center twice in December 2023 and were denied access. On the second occasion, they had a search warrant issued by Pierce County Superior Court but were still turned away.

“It’s good for workers that the court confirmed our ability to keep Washingtonians safe on the job, regardless of where they work,” Ross said.

He said inspectors who visited the facility in July did not find detainees doing any work or any violations related to staff at the site.

“We have not received any complaints or additional referrals that detainees are working there, but if we did, we’d take appropriate action,” he added.

Ross said Labor and Industries inspectors look at safety policies and practices and inspect job sites for things like fall hazards, dangerous machines, and chemical exposures.

Earlier dispute over detainee work

The state Supreme Court, in an opinion late last year, said GEO violated state law when it paid detainees $1 a day for their labor and said those who participated in a voluntary work program at the facility were entitled to protections under the state’s minimum wage law.

Before that, a federal jury in 2021 sided with detainees over allegations that GEO had run afoul of the state’s minimum wage law.

The company was ordered to pay the detainees about $17.3 million in back pay and the state secured a $5.9 million award in a parallel case. The court also blocked GEO from continuing the work program unless it complied with the minimum wage law.

GEO appealed and the dispute over the minimum wage issues is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Department of Justice weighed in earlier this year, arguing Washington state does not have the power to impose minimum wage requirements for people in custody at the facility.

From Labor and Industries’ perspective, Ross emphasized that a variety of rules determine whether detainees qualify as employees. This can depend on the type of work they’re doing and the type of facility where they’re housed. But if they are considered to be doing work under these guidelines, he said, they would be entitled to workplace health and safety protections.

Rising scrutiny, raft of litigation

The Northwest ICE Processing Center is the only facility of this kind in the state and has capacity for about 1,575 people.

Researchers at University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights have documented a range of troubling practices at the site, including allegations of medical neglect, unsanitary food and reports of sexual assault and abuse. The center also uses solitary confinement more than any other immigration detention facility in the country, the UW researchers say.

Immigration activists in the Northwest want the facility shut down and it’s drawn increasing scrutiny from Washington’s congressional delegation.

The state Department of Health is also battling with GEO to gain access to inspect the Tacoma facility. The two sides are now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreeing over whether a lawsuit the department filed should be heard in state or federal court.

GEO has sued the state as well, contending that House Bill 1470 – a 2023 law designed to impose stricter state requirements around conditions at the detention center – is unconstitutional because of how Washington would regulate the activities of a federal contractor.

Settle sided with GEO in a March ruling, temporarily blocking key parts of the law. The judge concluded that HB 1470 discriminates against GEO as the only company operating a private detention facility in Washington and subjects GEO to “substantial economic burdens.”

The state is appealing and that case, too, is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Notably, Labor and Industries gained access to the immigration detention center under a part of state law that allows for workplace inspections but that is separate from HB 1470.