‘Law-free zone’: Guard abuses unchecked at Tacoma ICE lockup, suit claims
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tacoma immigration detention guards allegedly beat up or groped three detainees.
- A lawsuit claims that the privately-run facility by GEO Group is a “law-free zone.”
- The Tacoma Police Department is accused of deferring criminal probes to GEO Group.
New recruits at the immigration detention center in Tacoma were shown a video of guards beating a detainee as an example of how to teach a lesson to those in custody, according to a lawsuit.
It’s one accusation in a legal complaint filed in Pierce County Superior Court that alleges guards at the Northwest ICE Processing Center physically or sexually assaulted three current or former detainees. The suit, filed Thursday by counsel with Connelly Law Offices, names the for-profit operator of the lockup, GEO Group, Inc., and two guards as defendants.
“While housed at Defendant Geo Group’s facility, Plaintiffs were attacked by guards for perceived slights or for no reason at all,” the lawsuit said.
GEO Group didn’t return a message from The News Tribune seeking a response to the lawsuit by a deadline Friday.
The detention center on the Tacoma Tideflats is privately owned and run by GEO Group under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Detainees are held in the nearly 1,600-bed facility to await legal proceedings for alleged civil immigration violations.
Allegations of beatings, abuse
One of the plaintiffs, Javon Gordon, grew up in the Bahamas and arrived in the United States at 18 years old in approximately 2000. He was taken into custody at the detention center in June 2024. He was also the one allegedly getting beaten up by guards in a video recording shown to staff trainees, according to the lawsuit.
In November 2024, Gordon was tackled to the ground by two guards while protesting to a supervisor about an earlier pod search for contraband that left his cell ransacked, the suit said. One guard slammed Gordon’s face into the concrete, leaving him bleeding from his mouth and head, and another climbed on top of Gordon as he struggled to breathe, according to the filing.
After his hands and legs were cuffed behind his back, a guard allegedly used his knee to strike Gordon in the right rib cage. Gordon was carried to solitary confinement and erroneously placed on suicide watch as retaliation, the lawsuit said.
“The video (of the attack) was being shown to new recruits as an example of what guards can get away with if they feel a Black male detainee is mouthing off,” the suit said. “The lesson that Defendant Geo Group intended to convey was that guards can physically beat detainees like Mr. Gordon without consequences.”
Jeffersonking Anyanwu, a second plaintiff, was born in Nigeria and came to the United States during an unspecified year to study computer science in college, according to the lawsuit. He has been held in detention in Tacoma since about July 2023.
Anyanwu was attacked by three guards in February 2024 in retaliation for protesting having been denied access to legal documents he needed for a forthcoming immigration appeal, according to the lawsuit.
In a hallway, Anyanwu was shoved, punched in the back, shoulder-checked in the chest, elbowed in the abdomen and knocked to the ground, the suit said. A guard allegedly pinned his knee on Anyanwu’s neck and then applied a headlock. One guard twisted Anyanwu’s arm behind his back, and Anyanwu was struck in the testicles repeatedly and, after being cuffed, hit in the legs, according to the filing.
“Mr. Anyanwu recalls being in shock and extreme pain,” the suit said. “He was so physically beaten that a stretcher was required to transport him.”
A third plaintiff, identified in the complaint only as “RT,” was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to the United States as a teenager. RT, who has struggled with mental health, was placed in immigration detention in California in August 2021 and arrived at the center in Tacoma in November 2023, according to the lawsuit.
In April 2024, a guard allegedly grabbed RT’s penis multiple times and held it for an unreasonable period during a pat-down. Another detainee informed RT that they also had been groped by the same guard, according to the lawsuit. GEO Group investigated and RT was initially told that a video recording of the pat-down showed inappropriate conduct, but it needed to be more closely reviewed, the filing said.
“After being informed the incident was recorded, RT was then told no footage existed, and (the guard) had conveniently positioned the pat-down to occur in a surveillance ‘blind spot,’” the suit said.
The guard was also involved in the alleged assaults on the two other plaintiffs, and he carried a mug adorned with a sticker of the Proud Boys, the right-wing extremist group, according to the suit. The filing, noting each plaintiff is Black, alleges that GEO Group “determined it appropriate to allow openly racist employees substantial power over non-white incarcerated persons.”
The News Tribune isn’t naming the two guards being individually sued because neither was charged with a crime, according to Pierce County Superior Court records.
RT and Gordon reported the alleged abuse to the Tacoma Police Department, but nothing was done and TPD effectively deferred to GEO Group to investigate itself, the lawsuit claims.
“Defendant Geo Group operates in a law-free zone,” the suit said. “What happened to RT’s and Mr. Gordon’s reports to Tacoma Police is standard operating procedure.”
A TPD spokesperson didn’t return a message seeking a response to the lawsuit’s claims by a deadline Friday.
As noted in the lawsuit, the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights found last year that there were patterns of neglect in the Police Department’s response to crimes at the facility. Of 157 “reports of abuse or assault” over a decade, only two were prosecuted, and those were instances in which GEO Group employees were the reported victims, according to the suit.
The university’s report said police were more likely to contact alleged victims of crimes if they were facility staff than if they were detainees, The News Tribune previously reported. In April, TPD had said it was reviewing the report and committed to making any necessary changes.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages and legal fees. It alleges claims including negligence in hiring, training and supervising employees. An attorney representing the plaintiffs wasn’t available Friday to discuss the complaint.
