Washington State is Sued for an Attempt to Shut Down ICE Facilities that Holds Criminal Illegal Aliens

GEO Group, a private investment trust that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities,  recently filed a lawsuit against Washington state over a law that Governor Jay Inslee signed that will shut down facilities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds criminal illegal aliens.

John Binder of Breitbart News explained how Inslee’s policy change negatively impacted GEO Group:

Last month, Inslee signed into law a plan that bans privately operated detention facilities and prisons, ensuring that ICE’s Northwest Immigration Processing Center (NIPC) in Tacoma, Washington ,operated by the GEO Group — that can hold more than 1,500 criminal illegal aliens – will be shuttered.

GEO Group is now filing a lawsuit against Inslee. The plaintiffs argue that the law is unconstitutional due to how it violates federal immigration law and undermines federally-approved funding for federal immigration detention facilities.

According to the lawsuit, the NIPC detained an average of about 840 illegal aliens on a daily basis from January 2019 to April 2021. Binder observed that “Before the Chinese coronavirus crisis hit the United States, the facility held an average of nearly 1,300 illegal aliens every day.”

The lawsuit state the following:

Absent relief from this Court, EHB 1090 will force GEO to close NWIPC. Thus, under EHB 1090, there would be no dedicated ICE detention facility in the State of Washington, and ICE would be forced to move detainees hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from their families and friends to facilities in other states. 

The location nearest to NWIPC that may have available beds for ICE detainees is the Yuba County Jail, in California, which is 659 miles away, by drive, and has a total capacity— for county prisoners and ICE detainees alike—of roughly 430 beds, 220 of which might be used for ICE detainees. Yuba County has faced pressure to end its contract with ICE.

…

EHB 1090, by prohibiting the Secretary of Homeland Security from using private detention facilities, overrides Congress’ determination to grant him discretion to place federal immigration detainees in private detention facilities and prohibits a means of federal detention that Congress clearly authorized.

Now, GEO Group is calling on the court to declare that the law is unconstitutional given how it violates the Supremacy Clause and the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Similarly, GEO Group is requesting that Inslee be prevented from enforcing the law and allow for the company’s contract to continue in effect up until September 2025.

Occasionally, the Supreme Court will get certain decisions right and rule in favor of Middle Americans’ interests.

To fight the current mass migration onslaught, America First patriots will need to use litigation, state-level action, and the recruitment of congressional candidates to reverse the Biden administration’s open borders policies and make patriotic immigration reform a reality.

Our Latest Articles