Does WA minimum wage law apply to immigration detainees in Tacoma? Supreme court rules

TACOMA — Washington state’s minimum wage law applies to detainees at the federal immigration detention center on the Tacoma Tideflats, the state Supreme Court ruled 9-0 Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asked Washington’s high court to answer that question as it reviews judgments against The GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the facility.

The 1,575-bed Northwest ICE Processing Center, formerly called the Northwest Detention Center, has been owned and operated by GEO since 2005. GEO has a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain people who are awaiting civil immigration proceedings.

Both the state Attorney General’s Office and a group of detainees sued GEO in 2017. The consolidated lawsuits in federal District Court alleged that the $1 daily wage the company offered detainees who worked at the facility violated the state’s Minimum Wage Act.

Ultimately, the group of detainees was awarded back pay of $17,287,063.05. The state was awarded $5,950,340.

GEO appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which is still reviewing the case.

“The certified questions in this case concern a challenge to a private, for-profit corporation’s practice of paying civil immigration detainees less than Washington’s minimum wage to work in its private detention center,” Associate Chief Justice Charles W. Johnson wrote for the unanimous Washington State Supreme Court in the opinion Thursday. “We are asked to determine whether Washington’s Minimum Wage Act applies to detained workers in a privately owned and operated detention facility. We conclude that it does.”

Justices Barbara A. Madsen, Susan Owens, Debra L. Stephens, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, Mary I. Yu, Raquel Montoya-Lewis, G. Helen Whitener, and Chief Justice Steven C. González signed the opinion.

Asked about the opinion Thursday, GEO said in a statement that the company “is disappointed that the Washington Supreme Court chose not to follow uniform precedent from courts all over the country holding that minimum wage laws do not apply to persons held in custodial detention facilities. We look forward to continuing presenting our arguments, consistent with the decisions of all other courts in the country who have considered this issue, as this case continues to be heard.”

Next step is for Ninth Circuit to rule

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement Thursday: “This is a major victory for Washington workers and basic human dignity. My office will hold powerful interests that break the law accountable.”

Adam J. Berger, one of the attorneys representing the class of detainees, told The News Tribune: “This confirms what we’ve been saying all along, which is that the detainees at the Northwest Detention Center who were cleaning, cooking, and maintaining the facility were employees of the company under Washington law, and should have been paid the state minimum wage, not a dollar a day for their labor.”

Asked about the group of detainees in the class, Berger said it includes about 11,689 who worked at the facility from Sept. 26, 2014 to March 31, 2021. He said now the case goes back to the Ninth Circuit and that he’s “hopeful that the Ninth Circuit will rule in our favor.”

It’s not clear how long the Ninth Circuit will take to make a decision.

“We would hope it would be just a matter of a couple more months,” he said.

Berger said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if GEO seeks review from the United States Supreme Court. He also said that it’s “primarily a case about state law,” and that he “doesn’t see a reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to take on review.”

Washington’s minimum wage this year is $15.74 per hour, according to the state Department of Labor & Industries website.

The Ninth Circuit order asking the state Supreme Court to answer questions about the case gave an overview of what the federal government pays the private company.

“Under the contract, GEO is to be paid a total of $700,292,089.08, or approximately $70,000,000 per year,” part of the order said. “Except for one aberrational year with a lower profit, GEO’s annual profit at NWIPC between 2010 and 2018 ranged from $18,600,000 to $23,500,000.”