Tens of thousands of illegal aliens detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were forced to work for $1 a day, or for nothing at all -- a violation of federal anti-slavery laws -- a lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit, filed in 2014 against one of the largest private prison companies in the country, reached class-action status last week after a federal judge's ruling. That means the case could involve as many as 60,000 illegal aliens who have been detained.
It's the first time a class-action lawsuit accusing a private U.S. prison company of forced labor has been allowed to move forward.
"That's obviously a big deal; it's recognizing the possibility that a government contractor could be engaging in forced labor," said Nina DiSalvo, executive director of Towards Justice, a Colorado-based nonprofit group that represents low-wage workers, including illegal aliens. "Certification of the class is perhaps the only mechanism by which these vulnerable individuals who were dispersed across the country and across the world would ever be able to vindicate their rights."
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At the heart of the dispute is the Denver Contract Detention Facility, a 1,500-bed center in Aurora, Colo., owned and operated by GEO Group under a contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Florida-based corporation runs facilities to house illegal aliens who are awaiting their turn in court.
The lawsuit, filed against GEO Group on behalf of nine aliens, initially sought more than $5 million in damages. Attorneys expect the damages to grow substantially given the case's new class-action status.
The class-action ruling by U.S. District Judge John Kane means that as many as 60,000 current and former detainees at the detention facility in Aurora are now part of the lawsuit without having to actively join as plaintiffs, said Andrew Free, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys.
The lead plaintiff in the case is, in fact, a permanent resident of the United States, and attorneys expect that "a significant portion of the class will fit that bill."
The original nine plaintiffs claim that detainees at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility are forced to work without pay -- and that those who refuse to do so are threatened with solitary confinement.
Specifically, the lawsuit claims, six detainees are selected at random every day and are forced to clean the facility's housing units. The lawsuit claims that the practice violates the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which prohibits modern-day slavery.
"Forced labor is a particular violation of the statute that we've alleged," Free said. "Whether you're calling it forced labor or slavery, the practical reality for the plaintiffs is much the same. You're being compelled to work against your will under the threat of force or use of force."
GEO Group also is accused of violating Colorado's minimum wage laws by paying detainees $1 day instead of the state's minimum wage of about $9 an hour. The company "unjustly enriched" itself through the cheap labor of detainees, the lawsuit says.
None of the original nine plaintiffs are still detained at the facility, DiSalvo said.
The class-action ruling by Kane, a senior judge in the U.S. District Court in Colorado, came at a critical time, DiSalvo said, noting President Donald Trump's pledge to deport 2 million to 3 million illegal aliens. Advocates say private prison companies that have government contracts stand to benefit significantly from the president's hard-line policy of detaining and deporting a large number of illegal aliens.
"That means you need to round up and detain more people in order to determine whether they have the rights to stay in this country before you deport them," DiSalvo said. "More people could be moving through, not just in the Aurora facility. More people could be subjected to GEO's forced labor policy."
GEO Group has strongly denied the lawsuit's allegations and argued in court records that pay of $1 a day does not violate any laws.
Jennifer Elzea, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said she couldn't comment on the litigation because "ICE is not specifically a party in this suit."
Under the agency's Voluntary Work Program, detainees sign up to work and are paid $1 a day. The nationwide program, it says, "provides detainees opportunities to work and earn money while confined, subject to the number of work opportunities available and within the constraints of the safety, security and good order of the facility."
Detainees work for up to eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, cleaning bathrooms, showers, toilets, windows, patient rooms and staff offices, waxing floors, and preparing and serving meals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says detainees "shall be able to volunteer for work assignments but otherwise shall not be required to work, except to do personal housekeeping."
Jacqueline Stevens, who runs Northwestern University's Deportation Research Clinic, said the program does not meet the criteria for what qualifies as volunteer work under labor laws.
"Just slapping the word 'volunteer' in front of 'work program' doesn't exempt the prison firm from paying legally mandated wages any more than McDonald's can use 'volunteer' senior citizens and pay them Big Macs," said Stevens, whose research about the volunteer work program prompted the lawsuit.
Prison labor, Stevens added, has two purposes: to punish prisoners after they've been convicted of a crime and to rehabilitate them.
Those don't apply to illegal aliens who have not been convicted of a crime.
A Section on 03/06/2017