The Supreme Court didn’t seem impressed with GEO Groups claim today that it should be immune from forced labor lawsuits at its Colorado immigration detention center. At least four justices signaled they weren’t eager to overturn the lower court ruling that let the case move forward.
More than 30,000 former detainees, led by Alejandro Menocal, say they were forced to clean and do other work without pay under threat of solitary confinement, and paid just $1 a day for voluntary jobs like cooking and laundry.
GEO Group argues it deserves the same immunity as the federal government because it operates under ICE contracts. But a district court already ruled that ICE didn’t order GEO to use unpaid labor or cap wages that low. Even the Trump administration isn’t siding with GEO here, saying the issue should go to trial.
Meanwhile, ICE detention has hit a record 66,000 people. Which raises an obvious question: if deportation is supposedly the point, why are so many people still being detained – unless the real goal is to profit off their labor? Private prison giants like GEO and CoreCivic are set to rake in billions from Trump’s $45 billion detention expansion. Free labor is a hell of a business model.