In a significant decision for the rights of detainees, the Washington Supreme Court recently ruled that civil immigration detainees employed in private facilities are considered legal employees and thus, are entitled to the state-mandated minimum wage. This represents another setting point in what has been an ongoing argument regarding the compensation practices of certain facilities.
The case in question was Ugochukwu Goodluck Nwauzor, et al v. The GEO Group, Inc., which centered around the practices of Florida-based private detention operator, the GEO Group. This company manages the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NIPC) in Tacoma, Washington. The point of contention was the alleged practice of paying detainees only $1 per day, a rate significantly lower than Washington’s current state minimum wage, which is projected to rise to $16.28 in 2024.
The GEO Group’s compensation policies had already been under the scrutiny of the federal court in Washington. In a 2021 decision, the court ordered GEO to pay $5.9 million in back wages and unlawful gains accrued from these wage practices, deemed unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Charles W. Johnson, speaking on behalf of the unanimous court, affirmed that detained workers at the NIPC are indeed considered employees and thus fall under the protection of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act (WMA). Importantly, the government-institutions exemption in the MWA doesn’t apply to detainees in private facilities, even if these institutions operate under a state contract.
On the matter, he stated: “[T]he legislature, by specifying that the exemption applies to persons detained in “state, county or municipal” institutions, distinguished public institutions from private ones. If the legislature wanted to exclude persons detained in private institutions, it would have done so explicitly.”
This ruling is in line with broader legislative trends. Notable is the move by Washington Governor Jay Inslee to phase out the use of for-profit detention centers in Washington by 2025 through certain measures. The implication here is to impact facilities like the NIPC. Current federal policy, directed by President Biden, has aimed to terminate contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities; however, this order initially didn’t extend to immigration detention centers like the ones run by the GEO Group under the Department of Homeland Security.