Geo Group’s refusal to allow state health inspectors into its Tacoma, Wash., immigration detention facility moved to federal court on Tuesday, as Washington state asked a judge to compel access and warned that the dispute has persisted even after appeals courts upheld the state law at the center of the fight. The Northwest ICE Processing Center, where Geo Group detains immigrants under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been the subject of thousands of complaints from detainees in recent years, according to Washington officials. The state said its health inspectors have been repeatedly turned away.
At a news conference outside the facility, Gov. Bob Ferguson said Washington’s Department of Health inspectors have been denied entry, preventing them from performing inspections at the Northwest ICE Processing Center. Ferguson said inspectors were turned away for the 10 times they sought access since the 2023 law passed, including on April 20 when they went to inspect the facility’s water.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said the state is seeking a court order because Geo Group continues to resist what Washington describes as the mandate of the court and the state’s health and safety authority over contractors. 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,” adding that “In my view, this is not just a legal obligation. It is a moral obligation.”
Washington’s request comes against a legal backdrop that began with the 2023 law, which Washington passed asserting its “broad authority to enforce generally applicable health and safety laws against contractors operating private detention facilities.” Geo Group sued to challenge that law, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it, according to the filing described by the Associated Press. Geo Group has until June 11 to appeal the appeals court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state said the detention center can hold up to about 1,600 people pending their deportation cases. Washington also said it has received 3,500 complaints from detainees in the past few years, nearly 1,000 of them related to water, food and air quality. The complaints described problems including food containing burned plastic, splinters, hair, worms and other foreign objects, as well as water that detainees said tasted foul.
Washington officials said they have suggested that the water provided by the city of Tacoma is fine, meaning the issue could involve the detention center’s own maintenance of its pipes. In the state’s account, health inspectors were also told to contact an ICE field office in Seattle when they sought entry, and the state’s court filing said that approach had previously produced no results.
The Associated Press reported that Geo Group declined to comment after being asked by email, instead referring a reporter to ICE. The report said ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the inspectors’ access.