Washington state says Geo Group refuses to let health inspectors into detention facility

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state on Tuesday asked a federal judge to force private prison operator The Geo Group to allow health inspectors into its for-profit immigration detention center in Tacoma, which has been the subject of thousands of complaints from detainees in recent years.

Inspectors with the Washington Department of Health have repeatedly been denied entry to the Northwest ICE Processing Center, where Geo Group detains immigrants under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Gov. Bob Ferguson told a news conference outside the facility Tuesday. The detention center holds up to about 1,600 people pending their deportation cases.

In 2023, Washington passed a law asserting its “broad authority to enforce generally applicable health and safety laws against contractors operating private detention facilities.” Geo sued to challenge it, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law; Geo has until June 11 to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“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,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown told the news conference. “In my view, this is not just a legal obligation. It is a moral obligation.”

Geo declined to comment in response to an emailed request from The Associated Press, instead referring a reporter to ICE, which did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The state 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. Some of the complaints said the food contained burned plastic, splinters, hair, worms and other foreign objects. The water has tasted foul, the detainees reported.

State health inspectors have been turned away from the facility all 10 times they have tried to enter since the law passed, Ferguson said. Most recently, they were turned away April 20 when they went to inspect the water. The facility’s water is provided by the city of Tacoma, which has fine water, suggesting there may be an issue with the maintenance of the detention center’s pipes, officials said.

The inspectors were told they needed to contact the ICE field office in Seattle, which they had previously done to no avail, the state’s court filing said.