Class Action Lawsuit Accuses GEO Group of Profiting from ‘Forced Labor’ at Civil Immigration Detention Facilities

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Nine plaintiffs allege in a proposed class action that GEO Group has benefited from “forced labor” at two of its civil immigration detention facilities in California. 

The 50-page complaint relays that GEO Group’s Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield and Golden State Annex ICE Processing Center in McFarland, California are civil, not criminal, detention centers that the company owns and operates for profit. The lawsuit claims that although GEO Group is contractually required to provide all essential detention services at the facilities, the company exploits the civilly detained immigrants therein for free or nearly free labor to perform those services and thereby maximize profits. 

“GEO pays detained immigrants just $1 per day, or nothing at all, to maintain and operate the Facilities,” the suit alleges. 

Per the case, civilly detained immigrants at the Bakersfield and McFarland facilities perform basic tasks that include cleaning shared showers, sinks and toilets; sweeping, mopping and waxing floors; and cleaning walls, dining areas, chairs, windows and handrails. Other detainees, the suit says, work as painters or assist those with disabilities to perform their daily activities. 

According to the complaint, immigrant detainees work five days per week for their formally scheduled shifts and often work for no pay at all on their days “off” and during unscheduled hours. The lawsuit charges that GEO Group’s so-called “voluntary” work program is not voluntary “in any meaningful sense.” 

Further, GEO Group maintains a policy of depriving detained individuals of necessary cleaning services, personal hygiene supplies, and other items to “ensure a ready supply of available labor” needed to run the facilities, the case claims. Per the suit, detained individuals are forced to work for $1 a day or less to buy basic necessities that “GEO systematically deprives them of.” 

According to the complaint, those detained at GEO Group-run facilities must either perform uncompensated or undercompensated labor or live in dirty, unsanitary conditions given the defendant does not have any outside staff to clean and sanitize the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex dorms. 

“Such conditions were bad enough prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but have been more harmful and even dangerous since the pandemic began,” the suit reads. “The pandemic has rendered the basic cleaning and sanitation tasks unpaid and underpaid detainees perform even more critical and the pressure on detained people to perform these tasks has only increased.” 

At the facilities, the complaint continues, GEO requires detained immigrants to perform work under threat of disciplinary action, which can result in placement in segregated housing and criminal prosecution. Detained individuals also face the potential loss of recreation, meals, law library and telephone access, and work assignments should they speak against the inadequate pay, the case claims. 

These same individuals, according to the lawsuit, are also charged fees by GEO Group to access email, video chat with loved ones, and call, text and retrieve voicemails from their contacts. 

According to the lawsuit, many detained immigrants “submit to deportation simply to obtain release from these intolerable conditions, even when they have valid claims to remain in the United States.”

The lawsuit looks to represent the following classes: 

“All civilly detained immigrants who (i) were detained at the Facilities any time between July 13, 2019 and the date of final judgment in this matter, and either (ii) participated in the Work Program at any point during their detention, or (iii) performed work for no compensation as a result of GEO’s policy not to hire sufficient outside staff and detained workers to keep the Facilities clean and sanitary, and to deprive detained people of necessary food, water, and other supplies.”

“All civil immigration detained individuals who (i) were detained at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex any time between July 13, 2015 and the date of final judgment in this matter, and (ii) performed janitorial, maintenance, or other work at the Facilities above and beyond the four personal housekeeping tasks enumerated in PBNDS § 5.8.V.C.”

“All civilly detained immigrants who (i) were detained at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex any time between July 13, 2015 and the date of final judgment in this matter, and (ii) participated in the Work Program or (iii) performed work without compensation at any point during their detention.” 

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