GEO Group signs ten-year ICE contract for Tacoma detention center
Deal worth roughly 140 million dollars a year covers 1,635 beds through October 2036, same-day congressional tour barred cameras as lawmakers hear of medication delays
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Rep. Jayapal, Randall tour Northwest ICE Processing Center
fox13seattle.com
fox13seattle.com
fox13seattle.com
GEO Group has signed a new ten-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide support services at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. The agreement, announced Thursday, is expected to generate about $140 million in annual revenue for the Florida-based company and runs through Oct. 27, 2036 — on the order of $1.4 billion over the decade. It covers security, maintenance, food services, medical care and transportation at a facility with 1,635 beds, roughly $85,000 in annual revenue per bed if the center runs full.
That arithmetic describes an unusual business. In most service industries, customers who receive bad food and delayed medicine can take their business elsewhere, and the possibility of losing them disciplines the provider. GEO's only customer here is ICE — the same agency whose enforcement priorities decide how many people need beds in the first place. Chairman, CEO and founder George Zoley made the arrangement explicit in the company's announcement: "We are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities." The people in the beds are not customers, and cannot leave.
The complaints at Tacoma are not new, and they have not touched the revenue line. FOX 13 Seattle has reported for months on conditions inside the center — medical care, food and water quality — and the facility has been the subject of disputes over whether Washington State can oversee a privately operated federal detention site at all. Five men recently described problems with food and medical care after being detained for camping in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest over Labor Day; one, Alvaro Robles Villanueva, said the facility needs more nursing staff, and another, a 38-year-old named Faustino, developed skin bumps he suspected came from the water.
On the day the contract was announced, Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Emily Randall toured the facility. Cameras were not allowed inside. The two men they spoke with described delays in care — one said he went without his blood-pressure medication for his first four days in detention and described how high his blood pressure had risen. Jayapal said she has contacted ICE headquarters for the contract's terms, including reports that the federal government may purchase the facility, and said she is concerned the agreement may limit the application of state regulations and inspections. It was not immediately clear whether the new contract contains the provisions lawmakers had previously questioned.
Those questions concern a bargain between a single buyer and a single seller that now runs to 2036. Jayapal noted that the man who waited four days has his medication now. His provider's contract runs another decade.