The settlement, finalized in May and made public this week, marks a significant win for immigrant rights advocates who have spent years pushing California lawmakers to bring private, federally run detention centers under closer state scrutiny. Eight such facilities currently operate across the state, and the number of people held in them has climbed sharply since President Trump returned to office.

The case dates back to the pandemic, when state lawmakers passed legislation granting California workplace safety inspectors access to detention facilities. In 2022, after fielding complaints from advocacy groups and detainees held at the Golden State Annex facility in McFarland, inspectors with Cal/OSHA opened an investigation and ultimately cited GEO Group for labor violations. Regulators alleged the company failed to stop the spread of COVID-19 among detained workers and did not take other necessary safety precautions.

The case is believed to be the first instance in which the state formally treated detained immigrants as employees — and the companies running their detention facilities as employers bound by California labor law.

Immigrants held in ICE custody are typically detained for civil immigration violations, not criminal offenses. Still, many participate in a voluntary work program inside detention centers, cleaning common areas, preparing meals or cutting hair for fellow detainees, tasks for which they are paid just $1 a day. Detainees often take part so they can afford items from facility commissaries or pay for phone calls to relatives.

As part of the settlement, GEO Group agreed to strengthen its illness-prevention protocols for detained workers and dropped its challenge to a state ruling issued last year that determined the company is subject to California labor law. In exchange, the state agreed to withdraw its citations. Neither GEO Group nor Cal/OSHA responded to requests for comment on the agreement.

The dispute over detention conditions is far from settled elsewhere in the state. Detention operators and federal immigration officials have repeatedly clashed with state and local regulators seeking access to facilities. Last month, a federal judge sided with San Diego County health officials, ordering the Department of Homeland Security and its contractor, CoreCivic, to allow a county inspector into the 1,400-bed Otay Mesa Detention Center near the U.S.-Mexico border. Days later, CalMatters reported that CoreCivic sold that facility, along with another one in Kern County, to the federal government.

Meanwhile, as several federal lawsuits challenge the $1-a-day wage paid to detained workers, GEO Group successfully lobbied ICE last month to revise its detention standards for contractors, according to the Washington Post. The updated standards now state that detainees “are not entitled to wages or benefits under applicable labor laws or wage regulations.”

Original source: CalMatters

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