Washington Bans For-Profit Detention Centers Including Immigration Detention Centers
The Washington State Legislature passed a law, which the Governor signed, banning for profit detention centers in the State of Washington. This also applies to immigration detention centers, which means that the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a large for-profit immigration detention center owned by GEO, a private company, will have to be shut down by 2025.
The NWDC is a 1575-bed privately owned, for profit detention center used to detain immigrants pending resolution of removal defense proceedings. GEO has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. government that dates back to the 1980s. GEO operates under multiple contracts with the U.S. government, in particular Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). New York, Illinois, Nevada, and California have all enacted laws similar to the Washington law. In 2019, GEO signed new contracts with ICE for five GEO-owned private detention centers in California with a term of 15 years. Those contracts were expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for GEO. GEO sued the State of California over the law and the federal judge presiding over the case ruled largely in favor of the State of California. GEO appealed the ruling and the appeal is pending.
The Biden Administration filed a briefing in the California case in which it adopted the Trump Administration’s arguments that the state law is unconstitutional. The Biden Administration did order agencies not to renew contracts with private prisons but specifically exempted immigration detention facilities from that order. For the time being, the Biden Administration is fighting to maintain the status quo as it relates to immigration detention and keeping immigrants in these for profit, private detention centers. This will leave it to the states to determine whether for-profit detention centers are welcome within their borders. It is highly likely that the Administration will also challenge the Washington law as unconstitutional.