Private prison contractor The GEO Group Inc. has appealed to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that only the federal government has the authority to determine whether detained immigrants in Tacoma, Washington, must be paid a minimum wage for participating in a voluntary work program. This move comes as the company seeks to overturn rulings that Washington state’s minimum wage should apply to civil detainees in privately run facilities, alongside judgments totaling about $23 million against the company.
GEO pointed to a recent Ninth Circuit ruling from November, which scrapped a King County, Washington, policy that prohibited fixed-base operators at a Seattle-area airport from providing services to contractors involved in deportation flights for the federal government. The court ruled that the county’s ban unconstitutionally interfered with the federal government’s operations. GEO believes this decision supports its argument that Washington’s attempts to regulate the voluntary work program for detainees similarly interfere with federal operations.
