While we have the victory of the $1 a day lawsuit, the inhumane conditions inside this for-profit detention center continue to worsen for detainees, including an outbreak of chickenpox and poor medical care.
On January 16, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed what a jury decided in 2017 when there was a lawsuit against GEO Group for forcing detained people to work for $1 a day. All workers including detained immigrants who work, or have worked at the now infamous Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) – an immigration detention center operated by the private company GEO Group – must be compensated for hours worked at Washington’s minimum wage rate of $16.66 and owed $23.2 million in back pay. However, inhumane conditions inside this for-profit detention center continue to worsen for detainees, including a chickenpox outbreak and poor medical care.
La Resistencia, a grassroots organization led by undocumented people, has maintained contact with people detained at NWDC over the years and received reports of people receiving food in exchange for work. If people worked multiple shifts per day, they were still paid only $1 per day. When detainees have complained, they have often suffered retaliation or received no response at all.
Immigrants in ICE custody are in the hands of private prison profiteers, GEO Group, whose intent to maximize profits has a direct impact on the inhumane conditions that worsen by the day for detainees at NWDC. People inside NWDC reported receiving food that had spoiled or had raw meat in it. It is not uncommon for detained people to become ill, which is not surprising because aside from food, people’s clothing is not properly washed and all clothing is shared, including underwear. One person said: “It’s like they don’t use soap because our clothes come back dirty and sometimes wet.”
This may be because GEO Group began hiring outside companies to clean when detained individuals began refusing to work unless they were paid the Washington minimum wage. “It’s like there are no cleaners because when they come they barely clean. A couple of minutes and they’re gone,” one detained individual shared. As a result, detained individuals end up having to clean without proper pay, or continue to be exposed to unsanitary conditions.
Conditions at NWDC are fertile for the spread of disease. The Resistance learned that individuals at NWDC tested positive for chickenpox during the second week of January 2025. Medical care has always been abysmal, it is concerning that there are no signs that GEO Group or ICE are beginning to take public health seriously because even with a chickenpox outbreak, ICE continued to transfer a total of 63 immigrants to NWDC.
For people who were detained and forced to work for $1 a day between 2014 and 2021, this is a victory amid the culmination of suffering at NWDC, but people who are still awaiting their hearings or deportation within NWDC continue to be demeaned and retaliated against by GEO officers for filing complaints for better conditions. There is an urgent need to address the worsening conditions at NWDC by shutting down this profit-driven operation, which inevitably results in the deterioration of well-being for all.
La Resistencia is a grassroots organization in Washington State led by undocumented people who stand in solidarity with those detained at the Northwest Detention Center and fight for the closure of the facility and an end to all detentions and deportations.
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