A federal appeals court based in Denver last week rejected the appeal of the private company that operates the immigration detention center in Aurora, concluding that it lacks the ability to consider the class action lawsuit before trial.
The plaintiffs are the detainees who first filed the lawsuit in 2014. The plaintiffs alleged that GEO Group, which operates a 1,532-bed detention facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), violated federal and state law in two ways.
First, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 makes it illegal to knowingly force another person to work through serious harm or the threat of serious harm. Requiring detainees to clean not only their personal spaces but also the common areas of the detention center while being threatened with solitary confinement allegedly violated that prohibition.
Second, the $1 per day that GEO Group paid inmates for its volunteer work program constituted unjust enrichment under Colorado law, and GEO Group did not adequately compensate inmates. , who had unfairly received benefits at the inmates’ expense.
In October 2022, Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane refused to close the case with an order condemning GEO Group’s “arrogance” and “deception.”
File photo: Alfred A. Arage Federal Courthouse in Denver.
Timothy Hearst, Denver Gazette File
Among other things, Mr. Cain found that GEO Group was not entitled to the immunity normally afforded to the federal government. Contractors can take advantage of that exemption but must act in accordance with government instructions. Mr. Cain determined that ICE did not force GEO Group to implement questionable practices.
“GEO went beyond its contract with ICE by requiring detainees to clean all common areas and going after other detainees under threat of segregation. And GEO’s contract with ICE… “We were given discretion to decide how much to pay GEO,” he wrote.
A trial was scheduled for April 2023, but GEO Group immediately appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The same appeals court already sided with the company in 2018 when it challenged the case as a class action.
Lawsuit: Menocal v. GEO Group
Decision date: October 22, 2024
Jurisdiction: United States District Court for the District of Colorado
Verdict: 3-0
Judge: Jerome A. Holmes (author)
Carolyn B. McHugh
Joel M. Carson III
Background: Judge gives green light to forced labor lawsuit against operator of Aurora Detention Center
The plaintiffs immediately asked for the appeal to be dismissed, arguing that GEO Group’s argument against Mr. Kane’s order did not fall within the category of limited judgments that merited an immediate appeal. Importantly, for the 10th Circuit to take action, Kaine’s order needed to resolve issues that were “totally separate from the merits” of the case.
During oral argument in September 2023, Chief Justice Jerome A. Holmes suggested that the question of GEO Group’s authority to implement the disputed policies was the core issue of the entire case.
Attorney Dominic E. says, “Whether they are authorized or directed by the government to run a volunteer work program and pay them $1 a day, and whether talented people are allowed to do their own work. “The question is whether they are authorized and ordered by the government to insist that they do so.” GEO Group’s Draye: “Those are questions that have nothing to do with merit.”
The 10th Circuit was not convinced.
In his Oct. 22 order, Holmes said both the issues on appeal and the underlying issues at trial are “whether the government specifically directed the contractor’s actions and whether the contractor actually followed the government’s direction. It has to do with whether there was a deviation or not.”
The court therefore declined to decide on appeal.
This case is due to Menocal et al. v. Geo Group Co., Ltd.
