A federal court in Tacoma, Washington, has ruled that the GEO Group, a for-profit prison company working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), owes detainees $17.3 million in back pay. A jury found that GEO Group has violated the state's minimum wage laws.

"This was about fair wages for work," says attorney Adam Berger, representing the class of detainees. "These detained immigrants are just emblematic of other workers in this economy who are in exploitive labor situations."

Immigrants are held in the Tacoma detention center while waiting for their asylum applications to be processed. The detainees were paid $1 per day for their work performing tasks like cleaning, cooking, and cutting hair. According to WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson, detainees performed "virtually all non-security functions" at the detention center and were sometimes paid compensation only in the form of extra food.

While detainees weren't forced to work, plaintiffs and former detainees like Nigerian-born Goodluck Nwauzor say that doing so was the only way to survive in immigration detention.

"You have to do it, to get the money to get the stuff you need, or also make a call to your friends and family members," Nwauzor told NPR. "It's unfair. Because the amount of the job, or the kind of job we do, is beyond what they were paying us."

Nwauzor received asylum in 2017 after eight months of waiting and working for GEO.

According to Washington state, the GEO Group not only violated labor laws but also did so to unjustly enrich itself. In 2018 alone, the company made $18.6 million in profits from the detention center in Tacoma. In a previous trial on the topic, the company admitted that it could pay detainees more.

"This multi-billion dollar corporation illegally exploited the people it detains to line its own pockets," Ferguson said in a press release. "Today's victory sends a clear message: Washington will not tolerate corporations that get rich violating the rights of the people."

However, GEO argues that it doesn't owe back pay because the detainees were not covered by Washington's labor laws. The law reportedly exempts those living in "state, county or municipal" detention centers. The GEO Tacoma location is a federal center owned and operated by a private company.

The $17.3 million award is to be split amongst the class of detainees which could include around 10,000 claimants. Claimants' attorneys will separately petition the court for coverage of their fees. The award will only resolve the class action against GEO, not Ferguson's suit claiming unjust enrichment.