Judge allows case over alleged forced labor in immigration detention to move forward

The front entrance to Otay Mesa Detention Center in south San Diego.

May 17, 2018 11 AM PT

Two former immigration detainees will be allowed to bring a class action lawsuit against CoreCivic, the private prison company that owns and operates Otay Mesa Detention Center, for alleged labor violations, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The complaint alleges that CoreCivic violated federal forced labor laws by making detainees clean and maintain the facilities for no pay and threatening them with punishments like solitary confinement if they didn’t comply.

It also alleges that in paying detainees $1 per day for a variety of jobs within the facility like doing laundry, preparing meals or cutting hair in the facility’s barber shop, CoreCivic violated wage laws. Detainees were only allowed to spend that pay at the commissary operated by CoreCivic, the complaint says.

The complaint argues that through all of this, CoreCivic was unjustly enriched off of the labor of its detainees.

“These illegal practices appear endemic to the CoreCivic operations on a California-wide, and indeed a nationwide, scale,” the complaint says.

Amanda Sluss Gilchrist, spokeswoman for Corecivic, said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

“Regarding detainee work in our facilities, all work programs at our ICE detention facilities are completely voluntary and operated in full compliance with ICE standards, including federally mandated minimum wage rates for detainee labor,” Gilchrist said. “We have worked in close partnership with ICE for more than 30 years and will continue to provide a safe and humane environment to those entrusted to our care.”

Otay Mesa Detention Center holds detainees in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for those with pending cases in immigration court, which is a civil court system, not a criminal one. That means that, unlike people serving sentences in jail or prison, those going through the immigration court system cannot be detained as punishment.

ICE has authority to detain someone only if the agency believes that person won’t show up in court or if the agency suspects the person would be dangerous to society if released.

Robert Teel, one of the attorneys representing the two former detainees who are bringing the suit said his clients hope that the lawsuit will change how CoreCivic operates and that the company will compensate people for work they did while in its detention facilities.

“The Court’s ruling means that persons who have been detained and work with little or no pay may be entitled to compensation and payment for their labor. And, if forced to work, there may be significant penalties to pay,” Teel said. “This is a significant and important case because immigrants, even though they are detained, are entitled to vindicate certain rights and not become a forced free labor pool.”

In her 51-page decision, Judge Janis Sammartino placed a couple of limitations on the lawsuit.

The complaint said that CoreCivic’s alleged conduct has been going on since at least 2004 and suggested that date as the cut-off for defining the class involved. Sammartino said the detainees’ cut-off date for some of their claims would be 2008 because of legislative changes around that time that amended the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a law they are using to bring the case.

The complaint also suggested two wage orders that could be used to establish how much detainees should have been paid for their labor. The judge found that one of those orders did not apply to the work done by detainees.

Filed in late May last year, the case is the second in a series of lawsuits against companies that run immigration detention facilities across the country. Lawsuits have also moved forward in Washington and Colorado.

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