Supreme Court intervenes in case where private ICE contractor forced detainees to clean common areas

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to shield a major private prison company from a lawsuit alleging immigration detainees in Colorado were forced to work for little or no pay.

In a unanimous procedural ruling, the justices rejected an appeal from the Florida-based GEO Group, which sought to quickly overturn a lower court decision allowing the case to proceed.

The ruling does not decide the merits of the lawsuit but clears the way for it to continue. If GEO Group loses the case, it can file its appeal then.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2014, alleges that detainees at a facility in Aurora were required to perform unpaid janitorial work and other jobs to maintain living conditions and supplement inadequate meals. Some detainees earned just $1 a day, according to the lawsuit.

A sign marks the entrance to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a former prison repurposed as an immigration detention facility operated by the GEO Group under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, on July 27, 2023. (Reuters/Quinn Glabicki/File Photo)

GEO has defended its labor program and argued that, as a federal contractor, it should be immune from such lawsuits because they were carrying out government instructions.

The Supreme Court, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

After a federal judge ruled the company was not entitled to immunity, GEO turned to the Supreme Court, but to no avail.

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GEO Group is one of the largest private detention providers in the United States, managing or owning roughly 77,000 beds across 98 facilities. The company operates immigration detention centers nationwide, including a newly opened federal facility in Newark, New Jersey, where Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested during a protest in May 2025 before charges were later dropped.

A surveillance camera sits outside of Delaney Hall, a 1,000-person detention center operated by GEO Group for ICE, in Newark, New Jersey, on May 10, 2025. (Reuters/Bing Guan/File Photo)

Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states. In Washington, a court previously ordered GEO to pay more than $23 million in a case involving detainee labor practices.

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The Colorado case will now continue in a lower court.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.