By Taylor Richmond

Washington State Journal

Living conditions for people held on immigration charges are the source of controversy for a detention center in Tacoma, and so far, the company that runs the center will not allow the state Department of Health to make inspections.

A bill now winning approval in the Legislature requires the state be allowed to inspect all detention facilities.

“[My father] was denied sufficient food for days and had no regular access to clean clothing or proper hygiene facilities,” said Isela Bonilla. “He was isolated and cut off from any support.”

The Northwest ICE Processing Center, privately owned and operated by GEO Secure Services, holds individuals while their immigration status is determined.

“My father witnessed someone hang themselves due to desperation,” Bonilla said. “I was scared my dad would fall into the same steps.”

According to the Washington State Office of the Attorney General, two people committed suicide at the NWIPC last year. Also, since 2005, inmates staged multiple hunger strikes because of a work program that paid more than 10,000 detainees $1 a day to perform essential tasks, including scrubbing showers and toilets, cooking and serving three meals a day, doing laundry and waxing floors during the night.

“Regardless of why they’re there, do they deserve human dignity? Do they deserve to not be suffering?” asked Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo. “They are getting none of that.”

Ortiz-Self sponsored House Bill 1470 in 2023, which allowed the Washington Department of Health to conduct basic health and safety inspections at the facility. After HB 1470 passed, the DOH attempted to inspect the processing center but was turned away.

GEO sued the state, calling HB 1470 discriminatory because the NWIPC was the only detention center affected by the bill.

This year, Ortiz-Self sponsored HB 1232 which requires the same living conditions, safe practices and oversight for all private detention centers in Washington state.

“Our Department of Health, they go into every other facility,” said Ortiz-Self. “We are asking them to be able to schedule with them and also go in and inspect conditions, just like we have accountability for everyone else.”

Scott Hutsell, the chairman of the Martin Hall Consortium Board, spoke on behalf of the Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Facility in Medical Lake. While his bill testimony remained neutral, he is not against having DOH inspect the facility.

“We are not against [HB 1232],” he said. “We think we have done a pretty good job for the better part of 30 years, and our operator has done a great job and has proven that for the 25 years that we’ve had the partnership.”

Community, Counseling and Correctional Services, Inc. runs Martin Hall. They are a not-for-profit based out of Butte, Montana.

During a lengthy back-and-forth on the House floor, many representatives argued that NWIPC operates under a federal contract, so it is the responsibility of the federal government to regulate, not Washington state.

“We don’t get to put our personal opinions into this matter,” said Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah. “It has nothing to do with the folks who are in this facility. It has nothing to do with the conditions of the facility.”

Rep. Jenny Graham, R-Spokane, agreed it is a “federal issue,” and said she believes the court will side with GEO in their lawsuit.

State oversight of federal facilities, however, is not unheard of. California signed a bill into law in August allowing local public health officials to inspect federal facilities. Two months later, GEO sued California, saying the law was unconstitutional.

In early March, U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd made no decision but told GEO their federal contract obligates it to comply with state health and safety laws, saying he’s “not even really sure what the point is” of the lawsuit.

When HB 1232 went to a vote, it passed with 56 yeas, 38 nays and four excused. It now moves to the Senate for further discussion.

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