The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that civil immigration detainees employed in private facilities must be treated as legal employees and are thus entitled to the minimum wage stipulated by the state.

The case, Ugochukwu Goodluck Nwauzor, et al v. The GEO Group, Inc., scrutinized the compensation practices of the GEO Group, a Florida-based private detention operator that manages the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NIPC) in Tacoma, Washington. Detainees at the NIPC were purportedly paid only $1 per day, significantly lower than Washington’s state minimum wage, which is set to increase to $16.28 in 2024.

Previously, the GEO Group’s compensation policies were scrutinized when a federal district court in Washington ruled against the NIPC. The 2021 decision demanded that GEO pay $5.9 million in back wages and unlawful gains accrued from the same wage practices now deemed unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Charles W. Johnson, writing for the unanimous court, noted that detained workers at the NIPC are indeed considered employees and thus fall under the protection of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act (WMA)​​​​. The government-institutions exemption in the MWA does not apply to detainees in private facilities, even if these facilities operate under a state contract. He further added:

[T]he legislature, by specifying that the exemption applies to persons detained in “state, county or municipal” institutions, distinguished public institutions from private institutions. And, as GEO states, if the legislature intended to also exclude persons detained in private institutions, it would have done so explicitly.

Moreover, the court addressed GEO Group’s unjust enrichment claims, affirming that damages awarded to the class of detainees do not bar the state from seeking equitable relief. This aspect of the ruling underscores the larger implications for private detention operators and their labor practices.

This decision aligns with broader legislative trends, including Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s measures to phase out for-profit detention centers in Washington by 2025, impacting facilities like the NIPC. While federal policy directed by President Biden has moved to end contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, this order did not originally extend to immigration detention centers like those run by GEO Group under the Department of Homeland Security.