Jayapal, Smith call for closure of for-profit immigration detention facilities

Northwest ICE Processing Center. (Grace Deng/Washington State Standard)

Washington Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith on Tuesday renewed their call to close all for-profit federal immigration detention centers.

Their letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas comes just days after Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray requested federal auditors investigate health care services at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, a privately-run detention facility in Tacoma.

Jayapal and Smith write that their letter was spurred by news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is closing a facility in Texas but plans to expand immigration detention overall.

“We are deeply troubled that ICE plans to use the cost savings from this closure to expand the use of immigration detention, in particular facilities operated by private, for-profit prison companies,” the two representatives write.

The letter cites a recent report from Physicians for Human Rights which found 95% of the 52 deaths in ICE custody reported between 2017 to 2021 were preventable, and 13 of the 15 immigration detention centers with the highest number of deaths were run by companies — including GEO Group, which operates the Tacoma facility and another facility in California.

“Some of the most egregious abuses of immigrants occurred in detention facilities run by private companies,” the letter reads. “Unnecessary medical interventions, forced labor, abuse of solitary confinement, and intimidation have run rampant at privately operated detention centers.”

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The Tacoma facility has a history of detainees reporting abuses similar to those outlined in Jayapal and Smith’s letter, and hunger strikes are common .

Northwest ICE Processing Center uses solitary confinement more than any other immigration detention facility in the country, University of Washington researchers say. ICE says they use “segregation,” distinct from solitary confinement because detainees in “segregation” are afforded certain privileges. Experts say there’s not much of a difference.

In March, 61-year-old Charles Leo Daniel died at the facility while in solitary confinement, spurring calls for a federal investigation. The Pierce County medical examiner said in a report released last month that Daniel died of natural causes related to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

“Immigration detention is meant to be civil in nature, not punitive. Yet immigrants detained by ICE in facilities increasingly operated by private prison companies face punishing conditions and neglect that some do not survive,” the letter continues.

The letter also notes that President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 to phase out use of for-profit federal prisons, but “no such directive was issued for the immigration system. In fact, the use of private prisons in the immigration system has grown.”

As of July 2023, about 91% of individuals in immigration detention were held in facilities owned or operated by private companies, up from 81% in 2020, according to an August 2023 report from the American Civil Liberties Union cited in the letter.

Jayapal and Smith are co-sponsors of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which would bring increased oversight and transparency to federal detention centers. First introduced in 2022, it was re-introduced again in 2023 but has stalled.

ICE and GEO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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