Washington state moved to compel access to a Tacoma immigration detention facility operated by The Geo Group, asking a federal judge to order the private prison contractor to allow Washington Department of Health inspectors to enter the Northwest ICE Processing Center. Gov. Bob Ferguson said the state’s inspectors had repeatedly been denied entry, characterizing the access limits as a continuing barrier to health-and-safety oversight at the facility. The state’s request comes as Geo continues legal challenges to a 2023 Washington law intended to let state officials enforce generally applicable health and safety rules against contractors running private detention facilities.
Ferguson said inspectors from the Department of Health tried to enter the facility multiple times and were denied on all 10 attempts since the law passed. He told reporters outside the detention center that the most recent refusal involved a planned inspection of the facility’s water. According to the state, the detention center is supplied with water from the city of Tacoma, which has fine water, raising questions about maintenance of the detention facility’s pipes.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said the state had received thousands of detainee complaints in recent years, including close to 1,000 linked to water, food and air quality. Brown said some of those complaints described problems with the food and water detainees said they were receiving, and he said the state’s inspectors were turned away even when attempting to inspect water conditions. The state’s request also cited what it said was a breakdown in communications with federal officials, saying inspectors were told to contact the ICE field office in Seattle but had previously received no effective response.
In court papers, the state said the inspectors were told they needed to contact the ICE field office in Seattle, which they had tried before without success, and that the facility’s operator continued to refuse the state’s entry. Ferguson said inspectors were turned away April 20 when they attempted to inspect the water, and he said the state had previously been refused entry as well. The detention center, the state and officials described, can hold up to about 1,600 people while immigration deportation cases move forward.
The legal posture extends beyond access demands. In 2023, Washington passed the law asserting it had “broad authority to enforce generally applicable health and safety laws against contractors operating private detention facilities,” according to the state account of the case. Geo sued to challenge the law, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it, and Geo has until June 11 to appeal that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Brown said Geo’s refusal to allow state health inspectors was more than a legal dispute, describing it as a moral issue. At a news conference outside the facility, Brown said: “Despite the mandate of the court and the seriousness of the problem, The Geo Group continues to defy our law by refusing to admit DOH inspectors.” He added: “In my view, this is not just a legal obligation. It is a moral obligation.”
The Associated Press reported that Geo declined to comment after an emailed request, instead directing the reporter to ICE. ICE did not respond to a request for comment, according to the AP report, leaving the state’s arguments and the operator’s reasons for refusing inspection access as the core issue before the federal court.