GEO Group forced to pay immigrant detainees for abuses—then asks ICE to rewrite the rules

A landmark legal settlement in California has confirmed what rights advocates have long argued: immigrants working in detention facilities have rights, and they are entitled to workplace protections.

But even as the settlement was being signed, GEO Group, the company at the center of the case, was quietly lobbying ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to undo that very principle.

A four-year fight for fundamental rights

GEO Group—one of the largest private detention contractors in the US—agreed in May to pay more than $100,000 to settle a case brought by California’s workplace safety regulator, Cal/OSHA.

The case began in 2022 after inspectors found detainees cleaning the Golden State Annex facility in McFarland lacked protective equipment, proper training, and adequate safeguards during the COVID-19 pandemic. Detainees reported wiping black mold from shower walls and breathing black dust from air vents while using cleaning products with no instructions.

GEO Group appealed, arguing detainees set their own schedules and therefore could not be considered employees. The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board rejected that argument. GEO Group then sued but settled three days before the case was due in court.

Cal Matters reports:

It was the first known time the state has treated immigrant detainees as workers and their detention facility operators as employers subject to state labor laws.

Immigrants held in ICE custody are detained on civil violations, not imprisoned for crimes. But in detention, where they can participate in a “voluntary work program” cleaning the facility, preparing food or cutting other detainees’ hair, they are only paid $1 a day. Detainees often participate in order to afford food at the centers’ commissaries or calls to their families.

Settling in court, lobbying behind closed doors

The settlement is a significant win. But it arrived alongside a troubling development. In June, at GEO Group’s request, ICE released updated national detention standards explicitly stating that detainees “are not entitled to wages or benefits under applicable wage laws or labor regulations.” This language directly contradicts what California’s courts affirmed just weeks before.

The entanglement runs deeper still. GEO Group’s share price is falling. Investors are reacting to reports that ICE plans to scale back its use of private detention. ICE appears to be shifting toward government-owned facilities so companies like GEO can avoid accountability.

The California settlement adds to that pressure. For a company that has seen record profits under the Trump administration’s mass detention expansion, the ground is shifting.

Forced labor by another name

Detainees in private facilities work in exploitative conditions just to afford basic necessities. Many report being threatened with solitary confinement, loss of phone access, and retaliation affecting their immigration cases if they refuse to work.

Despite this, ICE and GEO Group continue to insist it is a “voluntary” program. They do this so workers can help them profit without any labor protections.

Agency spokesperson Denisse Gomez said:

Individuals who perform work in these facilities are entitled to workplace safety protections, and this settlement reinforces Cal/OSHA’s commitment to enforcing those protections and safeguarding vulnerable workers.

For Freedom United, the GEO Group settlement is proof that accountability is possible—and that pressure works. But the fight is far from over. Add your name to demand an end to forced labor in immigration detention.