Nonilex

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

An ICE Contractor Is Worth Billions. It’s Still Fighting to Pay Detainees as Little as $1 a Day to Work.

GEO Group, whose stock is valued at $4 billion, says that state minimum wage laws don’t apply to the cleaning services that it’s asked detained migrants to perform at facilities where they’re kept.

ProPublica
Mar 19 at 6:55pmWeb
Show threadNonilexMar 19

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.

#immigration #law #Slavery #forprofit #prison #GEOGroup #Trump

Show threadNonilexMar 19

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.

#immigration #law #Slavery #forprofit #prison #Trump #HumanRights

Show threadNonilexMar 19

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.

#law