Company halts work program instead of upping detainee pay

The company that runs a for-profit immigration jail in Washington state has suspended its detainee work program, rather than pay the detainees minimum wage for cooking, cleaning and other tasks

SEATTLE -- Brazilian Jose Soares has been locked up in one of the United States' largest immigration detention centers for the past two years, passing much of his time cleaning bathrooms and buffing floors at a rate of $1 a day.

But last week, a federal jury ruled that Soares and other detainees who cook, clean, do laundry and cut hair at the for-profit lockup in Tacoma were entitled to Washington's minimum wage, $13.69 an hour. The multibillion-dollar company that owns the jail was ordered to pay more than $23 million in back pay and unjust profits to current and former detainees and to Washington state.

The guards, Soares said, then delivered a message: No more cleaning.

Rather than pay the detainees minimum wage, the Florida-based GEO Group suspended the Voluntary Work Program while it appeals.