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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.

In its filing, GEO emphasized that the principle established in the airport case — where state and local entities cannot impede federal operations, particularly regarding immigration policy — should apply to the voluntary work program at the Tacoma facility. GEO contended that the state of Washington should not be able to impose its own wage laws on a federal contractor acting under federal guidelines.

The issue arose when the Washington Supreme Court ruled last year that civil detainees held in private facilities could be entitled to the state's minimum wage, which currently stands at more than $16 per hour. In contrast, detainees at GEO’s Tacoma facility were only paid $1 per day for performing tasks such as cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry as part of the voluntary work program.

GEO argued that the voluntary work program is a requirement for all federally contracted immigration centers and operates in line with standards and pay rates set by the federal government. The U.S. Department of Justice filed an amicus brief, asserting that applying state minimum wage laws to detainees in private facilities would conflict with Congress’ intent for voluntary work programs and would be prohibited under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The detainees involved in the case, represented by a number of legal groups, have challenged GEO's position, arguing that the work done in the program should be compensated fairly, in accordance with state labor laws. Meanwhile, the state of Washington’s legal team argues that the minimum wage law should apply to detainees working in private facilities within the state.

GEO is represented by Michael Kirk of Cooper & Kirk PLLC, while the detainees are represented by multiple law firms, including Gupta Wessler LLP and Schroeter Goldmark & Bender. The case, titled Ugochukwu Nwauzor et al. v. The GEO Group Inc., is under review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with the outcome potentially influencing the treatment of immigrant detainees in similar programs nationwide.

The legal battle over detainee wages is ongoing, and a decision from the Ninth Circuit could set an important precedent regarding the balance of state and federal powers in the context of immigration detention and labor laws.