Does the city of Tacoma invest money in the controversial GEO Group?
Activists in recent months have clashed with Tacoma city leaders, criticizing them for not doing enough to stand against federal immigration authorities.
The conflict is exacerbated by the presence of the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Tacoma’s Tideflats, which is run by GEO Group, an organization that has been the subject of several lawsuits alleging poor conditions for detainees.
Amid the conflict, activists have raised the question: Does the city of Tacoma invest money in GEO group? The answer is yes, but it’s complicated.
City spokesperson Maria Lee said the Tacoma Employee Retirement System, or TERS, has a $33,000 share in GEO Group — 0.001% of TERS’ portfolio. TERS is the pension plan for city employees. Employees set aside a portion of their income for retirement in an amount that’s matched by the city. The city invests that money and makes monthly payments from the fund to employees upon their retirement.
TERS is invested at least in part in low-cost index funds, which Lee said are “the most operationally efficient and cost-effective way to get great returns, which locks in more value for TERS’ members.”
If city officials moved to remove the portion of the fund invested in GEO Group, TERS would have to divest from the entire index fund and switch to a less efficient and more expensive account that would result in anywhere from $48,000 to $120,000 in additional annual fees.
“It is understandable how the presence of any controversial holding in TERS’ portfolio, no matter how small, raises questions,” Lee wrote in a statement.
TERS is governed by the TERS Board, a nine-member body that includes the mayor and representatives from various city departments. The board, Lee said, has a “non-negotiable, legally mandated” responsibility to ensure the long-term security of its members, and as such can’t put personal or political beliefs above that responsibility.
“As fiduciaries, TERS Board members are legally and ethically prohibited from incurring such significant, detrimental costs,” she said.
Talison Crosby, a member of La Alianza, an immigrant-advocacy group, said the city could find a way to divest from GEO group if it wanted to.
“I think that they’re making excuses,” Crosby said. “They’re couching their cowardice in legalisms.”
Rie Guerrero, another member of the group, said any amount of money that the city has invested in GEO is too much.
“If Tacoma is serious about saying that it doesn’t stand for what’s happening at GEO Group, it cannot be a profiteer off of this detention center,” she said.
Staff writer Bonny Matejowsky contributed to this report.
