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 Tacoma has ended with a hung jury.
U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan declared a mistrial Thursday following a two-week trial and about two days of deliberation, after the jurors indicated they could not reach agreement.
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued GEO in 2017, saying the company had unjustly profited by running the Northwest detention center on the backs of captive workers.
GEO maintained that the detainees were not employees.