Washington state on Tuesday asked a federal judge to force private prison operator The Geo Group to allow health inspectors into its for-profit immigration detention center in Tacoma, which has been the subject of thousands of complaints from detainees in recent years.
Inspectors with the Washington Department of Health have repeatedly been denied entry to the Northwest ICE Processing Center, where Geo Group detains immigrants under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Gov. Bob Ferguson told a news conference outside the facility Tuesday. The detention center holds up to about 1,600 people pending their deportation cases.
