Supreme Court Deals Setback To Ice Detention Contractor In Fight Over Detainee Work

A long-running lawsuit claiming that a private prison contractor broke federal and Colorado law by forcing immigration detainees to work moved closer to trial Wednesday after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a bid by the company to toss out the case.

The contractor, GEO Group, asserted it was entitled to immunity and should not face a civil trial because the firm’s detainee work policies were carried out at the direction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, the justices said the degree to which federal officials authorized the detention center’s work program was an issue that could be hashed out at trial.

“If eventually found liable, GEO may of course appeal,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court’s majority. “But GEO must wait until then.”

The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2014, focused on practices at GEO’s facility in Aurora, Colorado. Immigration detainees there were required to clean all common areas and faced possible solitary confinement for failing to comply. They were offered $1 a day for work preparing food and cleaning laundry at a time when the state’s minimum wage was $8 an hour.

The civil lawsuit alleges that the arrangement violated a federal law prohibiting forced labor and, because the policies saved labor costs for GEO, ran afoul of a Colorado common-law prohibition on unjust enrichment.

About 1,200 immigration detainees were being held at the center as of January, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said following an oversight visit by congressional staff.

The Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t mean the detainees will win their case, but the company is now likely to face a trial unless the firm settles. Lawyers for GEO argued that putting that burden on the company would make firms less likely to bid for government contracts and ultimately increase costs to taxpayers.

But the justices said the company was not entitled to pre-empt the lawsuit by claiming a form of immunity flowing from or “derivative” of the federal government’s sovereign immunity.

While all the justices agreed that the company’s appeal should be dismissed at this juncture, Justice Samuel Alito did not join Kagan’s opinion and Justice Clarence Thomas joined it only in part.

GEO’s stock price spiked up following President Donald Trump’s election in 2024 on investors’ optimism about a massive expansion of privately run prisons and detention centers by the incoming administration. However, the stock has since dropped below its pre-election level.

Lawyers for the detainees and spokespeople for GEO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.