Immigrant detainees who were denied minimum wage awarded millions in back pay by jury
CNN
A jury in Washington state awarded $17.3 million in back pay to immigrants who were denied the minimum wage while working at a detention center, according to Adam Berger, an attorney representing the detainees.
The immigrants who would be eligible for the award, which was announced Friday, worked at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma since 2014. The GEO Group, a Florida-based company that runs the for-profit facility, could appeal, meaning the money won't be distributed until that's resolved.
"It's important on a number of grounds. It's the first case in the country where a judge or jury has found that detained immigrants working at privately owned facilities are entitled to be paid minimum wage or a fair wage for their labor in keeping the facilities running," said Berger, who works at the firm Schroeter Goldmark & Bender.
The Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to roll out the president’s immigration agenda, effectively closing off the US southern border to asylum seekers, severely limiting who’s eligible to enter the United States and laying the groundwork to swiftly deport migrants already in the country.