Surprise health inspections remain legal, for now, at ICE detention center in Tacoma

The state of Washington could still conduct unannounced health inspections at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. That’s despite a recent lawsuit filed by GEO Group, which runs the facility, trying to stop surprise inspections by the state.

As things stand, the Washington State Department of Health is free to perform unannounced health inspections at the center. That’s been the case since May, when a new state law cleared the way for such inspections and provided money for staffing.

“The new law was effective on May 11, 2023, and the Legislature allocated funding to hire staff effective July 1, 2023,” said Kara Kostanich, spokesperson for the Department of Health.

Concerns about the sanitary conditions at the detention center have led to a series of hunger strikes by people detained there.

The surprise inspections would be welcomed by some detainees, including a woman who spoke to KUOW after taking part in a recent hunger strike. The woman, who KUOW is not naming to protect her from potential retribution, has been detained at the Tacoma center for several months.

“The showers never get scrubbed. They only get sprayed and wiped. They're moldy and the paint that's coming off the walls and it's all like it's all scratched in moldy and dirty,” she said.

The detained woman said she hopes for a future where detention centers like these are shut down. She spends her time learning, reading, and thinking about her children back home.

She had a green card but was part of a domestic assault case. After she found out her then partner was abusing her daughter, she said she decided to take matters into her own hands and attacked her partner.

Her daughter is now raising money for other sexual assault survivors.

After she spoke with KUOW, the woman said she was threatened with being put into solitary confinement by ICE detectives.

Another man being held at the Tacoma facility was handed over to ICE custody for deportation after spending several years in California prisons. He said conditions are worse in Tacoma than back in his California prison days.

“I used to be in the criminal system but I’m not in the criminal system. I'm just being detained, you know, I shouldn't be treated like a criminal when I’m being detained,” he said.

Legally, detention centers are classified as civil detention facilities, and not meant to hold people in the same way jails or prisons do.

Up until 2021 detainees were paid a dollar a day or given extra food to clean or cook until the GEO group lost a minimum wage lawsuit.

KUOW has reached out to GEO Group for comment about the inspections and their lawsuit, but company representatives did not immediately respond.