Ongoing sanitation concerns at Tacoma ICE facility have been ignored, says UW report

A new UW report raises questions about adequate janitorial services at Tacoma’s immigration detention center. The report includes internal emails among ICE staff, noting concerns about cleanliness at the facility.

The University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights obtained the emails as part of an ongoing investigation into conditions at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, one of the largest immigration lockups in the country.

Angelina Godoy, the center's director, said the internal emails raise concerns about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement oversees its contract with the GEO Group, the private company that operates the facility.

“Despite ICE repeatedly voicing concerns about cleanliness at the facility, whatever actions were being taken by GEO were insufficient, at least in the view of the ICE employees who are drafting these emails,” she said.

Godoy said ICE has the ability to reign in the GEO Group when they step out of line.

“They can say to GEO, 'We're not going to pay you, because you're not doing a satisfactory job,'” she explained.

A spokesperson for the GEO Group said they strongly reject the allegations in the UW report. They said the emails were sent during a time when detainees were involved in a voluntary work program, which is now suspended.

An ICE spokesperson declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

The GEO Group lost a lawsuit in 2021 when a federal jury ruled their use of detainees as laborers violated the Washington state’s minimum wage laws. They were paying detainees $1 a day or extra food for their labor. The GEO Group has since appealed the ruling.

“While that litigation remains on appeal, and the program remains suspended," said GEO Group in an email to KUOW. "We have taken all necessary actions to ensure that facility sanitation levels quality are maintained at the facility in accordance with all applicable federal sanitation standards.”

Detainees recently began calling for more sanitary conditions throughout the facility, including in the bathrooms and showers.

Representatives from the GEO Group wouldn't share who’s currently maintaining the facilities.