The Washington Department of Health is suing for a second time to gain access to the Northwest ICE Processing Center.
By Grace Deng, Washington State Standard, September 9, 2024
A state Department of Health lawsuit seeking to gain entry and conduct inspections at a federal, privately-run immigration detention facility in Tacoma was dismissed on Monday.
The department filed suit against The GEO Group, the company that runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center, after both state health and workplace officials were repeatedly denied access to the facility in late 2023. It’s one of several cases where the state and GEO are battling over Washington’s power to regulate the controversial facility.
In the Department of Health’s case, both parties agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case, which was before Judge Benjamin Settle in federal district court in Tacoma. But the department on Monday pointed to a new lawsuit it filed in August against GEO after an agency official was denied entry at the detention center again in July.
The department filed its latest suit in Thurston County Superior Court. GEO is pushing to have the case moved to the same federal court where the dismissed case played out, and the two sides are now arguing over this before the same federal judge who oversaw the earlier dispute.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Labor & Industries gained access to the facility under an order Settle issued in a separate case in July. Further arguments in that case are scheduled to last into November.
Inspectors last year attempted entry at the Northwest ICE Processing Center under a 2023 Washington law meant to bring more state oversight to private detention facilities in Washington known as House Bill 1470. GEO said it barred state inspectors under the direction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
The Northwest ICE Processing Center is the only facility of this kind in the state. Hunger strikes are common at the facility, which has a history of reported human rights violations, including inadequate food, regular use of solitary confinement and poor hygiene, according to research from the University of Washington.
GEO did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday but in court filings, the company described the new Department of Health lawsuit as “the latest in a series of troubling attempts by the State of Washington to circumvent this Court’s rulings and force entry into the federal Northwest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
In another filing, GEO suggested the state was on an “unconstitutional crusade to shut down ICE centers in the state of Washington.”
The courts first blocked Department of Health officials from entering the facility in March, issuing a preliminary injunction in favor of GEO in a dueling lawsuit the company filed against the state. The state is appealing that injunction at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In issuing the preliminary injunction, Settle, who also presided over GEO’s suit against the state, said the law discriminates against GEO as the only company operating a private detention facility in Washington and subjects GEO to “substantial economic burdens.”
GEO, in its suit over HB 1470, argues that the law is not only discriminatory, but unconstitutional because the state is attempting to encroach on the federal government’s power to detain immigrants. The U.S. government filed a brief in the case in July siding with the company and against the state law.
“HB 1470 imposes unique burdens on federal contractors applicable to no contractors at any other detention facility,” says the brief, which was submitted by attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the Department of Labor & Industries case, Settle granted a preliminary injunction in July that said GEO could not block Labor & Industries from entering the facility to carry out inspections under a statute separate from HB 1470 that allows the state agency to “inspect conditions at any workplace,” according to the judge’s order.
When Department of Health Complaint and Enforcement Lead Soleil Muniz visited the detention center in July and requested entry to conduct an inspection, she cited authority the agency has under the law that gained Labor & Industries access to the center rather than HB 1470.
FEATURED IMAGE: Northwest ICE Processing Center. (Grace Deng/Washington State Standard)
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