Emily Sortor  |  May 17, 2019

Category: Detention Center Labor

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Young man in detention facilityICE forced labor lawsuits challenge alleged forced labor occurring at immigration detention centers run by CoreCivic, a for-profit prison operator that runs immigration detention centers as well as prisons.

Around the country, people are held in detention facilities over immigration issues. Some of the people being held in these facilities may be undocumented immigrants, while others may have arrived legally, and may include those trying to obtain student visas and green cards. Nonetheless, these people may be held in detention.

Reportedly, companies like CoreCivic that run both detention centers and private prisons only hold around 10 percent of the prison population in the country, but may hold up to 70 percent of people in immigration detention, according to information provided by The Sentencing Project.  

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and indentured servitude except as punishment for a crime, meaning that convicted prisoners may be made to work, even without compensation.

Around the country, people who say that they were detained for immigration-related issues at CoreCivic facilities were forced to perform labor like those imprisoned for a crime. Many claim that the people being held for immigration reasons are not guilty of any crime, but are being detained while they wait for deportation or asylum hearings.

Former detainees in the ICE forced labor lawsuits say that they were paid nearly nothing to perform work. They claim that staff withheld basic necessities or threatened punishment if they did not perform the work.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has instituted a Voluntary Work Program. Though the description of the program provided by ICE says that the program “provides detainees opportunities to work and earn money while confined” the program allows facilities detaining immigrants do not need to pay them more than a dollar a day to perform work.  

Some people who were detained at privately-run ICE detention facilities say that the work they performed while in detention was not voluntary at all, but was forced labor. They have filed a class action lawsuit claiming that CoreCivic violated human trafficking laws by forcing detainees to work.

They say that they were paid as little as a dollar a day, and the work they performed was the only way that they had access to money to buy necessities like toothpaste, or access to funds to place calls to family. Allegedly, items sold at commissary and phone calls were priced exorbitantly high, meaning detainees had to work extremely long hours to have access to what they say are essential items and services.

Responding to the ICE forced labor claims, CoreCivic says that work programs at all of the company’s immigration detention faculties are “completely voluntary,” and call the detention centers a “safe and humane environment.”

ICE forced labor lawsuits fighting back against these work programs aim to protect individuals who are held in detention around the country, saying that federal law was violating.

State laws also may have been violated. In one case, detainees who stayed at the Otay Mesa facility in California may have been forced to work for a dollar a day, and if so, they may be protected by California labor laws. 

Join a Free CoreCivic Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were detained in one of CoreCivic’s detention facilities as an immigration detainee with pending immigration status or deportation within the past year or you witnessed forced-labor practices, you may qualify to participate in an immigration detainee labor lawsuit investigation.

Fill out the form on this page for more information. 

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.

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One thought on ICE Forced Labor Happens Under ‘Voluntary’ Work Program, Say Former Detainees

  1. Patricia Krueger says:

    WTH IS WRONG WITH U PEOPLE

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