Request access for surprise visits? Only ICE would do that | Opinion
Nine times the Washington State Department of Health says it has attempted to inspect the privately run immigration detention center on Tacoma’s Tideflats since 2023. Nine times they’ve been turned away by GEO Group, the private company that runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center for the federal government.
There’s always a reason.
As the state health department describes it, GEO Group told the agency’s representatives something that sounded like satire on March 20. The Department of Health would have to put in a request with ICE’s Seattle office before it could carry out an unannounced inspection of the detention center.
This little strand of red tape is part of a giant curtain that GEO Group refuses to pull back on the conditions inside its Tacoma facility, which has a capacity of more than 1,500 people.
For decades, complaints about the water quality, food and general sanitation have surfaced in written grievances and accounts collected by groups who support people held in the detention center. In a statement, the Washington State Department of Health said it has filed a request to the Seattle ICE office and is waiting to hear back. Its mission, the agency said, is to protect everyone’s health, including people in detention.
“We remain committed to investigating the more than 3,500 complaints at NWIPC and to work toward safer, healthier conditions for everyone in these facilities,” the statement said.
I won’t dwell on the incoherence of telling a government agency to ask first before performing a surprise inspection. It could turn out that GEO Group, which is in the midst of getting a new contract ironed out with ICE and reportedly just signed a six-month extension on its current contract, is technically correct about that requirement. But I will point out what the company is refusing to let the state inspect: the living conditions forced on people who are held without the same legal rights as prisoners.
The situation needs scrutiny. GEO Group is gaining no one’s trust by sending inspectors on a goose chase for permission to get through the door.
Those conditions have reportedly included wormy, rotten or undercooked food, stained or still-dirty laundry and foul drinking water. The claims are not new. Detained immigrants have gone on hunger strikes at various points over the years in protest.
The University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights collected some of those reports from as far back as 2012. A 2019 report from the Department of Homeland Security itself found many similar problems at three of GEO Group’s other ICE detention centers.
As these reports surfaced, the state legislature’s first instinct was to get rid of the place. But the courts quickly struck down its 2021 law banning all private detention facilities.
The next option was regulation and monitoring. A 2023 state law gave both the health department and the Washington Department of Labor & Industries the authority to make unannounced inspections of private detention centers.
Since the Washington state legislature passed that law, GEO Group has fought back in court. The company argued that it shouldn’t be subject to those inspections as an ICE contractor, saying states can’t regulate the feds.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument in an August ruling, saying GEO Group and other private government contractors aren’t synonymous with the federal agencies that pay them. That should have cleared the way for the Washington State Department of Health to get through the door.
The agency’s attempt to enter and inspect last month was its first try since that ruling went into effect. It’s now clear that GEO Group will always try to say no. Now the health department waits for ICE’s reply for its request to enter the facility.
If ICE allows the inspection, that may be surprising. But it will hardly be unannounced.
