Geo Group faces trial over detention labor

Geo Group, the private company that manages the Aurora immigration detention center, goes before a federal jury Monday. The trial centers on a 2014 lawsuit claiming the company forced immigrant detainees to perform unpaid or low-wage labor. Plaintiffs allege that workers were paid one dollar a day for various tasks and that housing units had to be cleaned under threat of solitary confinement.

The legal team, which includes Denver immigration lawyer Hans Meyer, describes Geo's approach as a model designed to maximize financial gain. They argue the company enriched itself through a voluntary work program that served thousands of detainees. Geo, a publicly traded firm, expects roughly $3 billion in revenue this year. The company secured new contracts under the current administration's detain-and-deport initiatives.

Although the lawsuit lists nine former detainees as named plaintiffs, it operates as a class action. This scope includes thousands of individuals detained in Aurora between 2004 and 2014, spanning parts of the Bush and Obama administrations. Attorneys note that the specific cleaning and work programs continue today. More immigrants have passed through the facility since President Donald Trump returned to office last year.

Geo signed a temporary contract earlier this month to extend its deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company has previously earned hundreds of millions of dollars running the Aurora site. In legal filings, Geo denied that its practices constituted forced labor. The company argued that the cleaning requirement represented a civic duty allowable under federal law.

David Seligman, a Denver attorney on the legal team, stated that the case puts the core of Geo's business model on trial. He said the litigation addresses the exploitation private prison companies engage in to cut costs. The Aurora facility, opened in the 1980s, is the only detention center in Colorado. It holds 1,532 people suspected of lacking legal status. Geo was also awarded a $528.6 million contract to open a second facility in Hudson, northeast of Denver.

The company has faced other legal challenges. A federal jury in Washington state ordered Geo to pay $23 million for violating minimum wage laws, a ruling upheld by an appeals court last year. Health officials in Colorado and New Jersey have also sued the company to gain access for state inspectors. A minimum wage claim in the Aurora case was dismissed in 2015, but the forced labor allegations advanced.

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks, with opening statements likely on Tuesday. Geo recently sought to delay the proceedings in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court rejected that request in a terse ruling on Thursday morning. The case has spanned four presidential administrations and involved more than 40 attorneys at various points.

Meyer noted that public awareness of the conditions in immigration detention has increased. He said the public is finally aware of the realities of the system. A Geo Group spokesman did not return a message seeking comment for this story.