Federal jury: Immigrant detainees are owed minimum wage
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal jury has determined that The GEO Group must pay minimum wage — rather than $1 a day — to immigration detainees who perform tasks like cooking and cleaning at its for-profit detention center in Washington state. The verdict came Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma in a second trial over the issue. The first trial ended in June with a deadlocked jury. The jury will now consider how much the immigrant detainees who worked at the facility are owed, and U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan on his own will determine what The GEO Group must pay Washington state for its claim that the company unjustly enriched itself.
