SEATTLE (AP) — A trial over whether the GEO Group must pay minimum wage — instead of $1 a day — to immigration detainees who perform tasks like cooking and cleaning at its for-profit detention center in Washington state has ended with a hung jury. U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan in Tacoma declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors indicated they could not reach agreement following a two-week trial and about two days of deliberation. Democratic Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued GEO in 2017, saying the company had unjustly profited by running the Northwest detention center in Tacoma on the backs of captive workers. GEO maintained that the detainees were not employees.
Mistrial halts case on minimum wage for immigrant detainees
