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The #forprofit #prison company #GEOGroup has surged in value under #Trump. Investors are betting big on #immigration #detention. Its stock price doubled after Election Day.
But despite its soaring fortunes, the $4B company continues to resist having to pay detainees >$1 a day for cleaning facilities where the government has forced them to live.
#law #Slavery
https://www.propublica.org/article/geo-group-ice-detainees-wage
At the 1,575-bed detention center GEO runs for #ICE in Tacoma, Washington, detainees once prepared meals, washed laundry & scrubbed toilets, doing jobs that would otherwise require 85 full-time employees…. The state’s #MinimumWage at the time was $11 an hour. (It’s now $16.66.) In 2017, Washington sued GEO to enforce it, & in Oct 2021 a federal jury ruled unanimously in the state’s favor.
This year, #GEOgroup & Washington are back in court — for a third time — as the company tries to reverse the earlier decision that sided w/the state. #GEO has brought in contract cleaners at the Tacoma facility while the case plays out, keeping detainees there from *paid* work & from having a way to earn commissary money.
The #legal battle has national repercussions as the number of #ICE detainees…rises to its highest level in 5 yrs. The vast majority are held in #private facilities run by #GEOGroup or corporate competitors like #CoreCivic. If following state #MinimumWage becomes the norm, #Trump’s #immigration crackdown could cost the country even more than it otherwise would—unless private detention centers absorb the cost themselves or…cut back on cleaning, which…detainees…already accused GEO of doing.