Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Monday April 17 2017, @06:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the cheap-foreign-labor dept.

KUOW-FM reports about two detention centres operated by The GEO Group, Inc., formerly called the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (ticker symbol GEO). Detainees for the centres are provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

A class action lawsuit says the company running an immigration detention center in Colorado is violating federal anti-slavery laws. It's the same company that runs the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, scene of an expanding hunger strike.

[...] Nina Disalvo is an attorney for the detainees in Colorado. She said it's illegal to pay them $1 a day.

"It's not the market wage that GEO would have to pay [...]," Disalvo said.

The Seattle Times via The News Tribune quoted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson, concerning the hunger strike at the Tacoma facility:

"The sole detainee who is continuing to refuse meals has been allowed to remain in the general population, but the facility personnel are monitoring him closely," Kice wrote of the strike that began Monday.

Kice said about one-third of the civil detainees — who are awaiting immigration hearings or deportation — refused meals but, citing fluctuating numbers, did not provide exact numbers of those who participated in the strike. As of Friday morning, the population count at the facility was 1,401.

According to Free Speech Radio News,

In March, a federal judge approved class-action status for a lawsuit alleging at least 60,000 past and present detainees held at the Aurora ICE facility were forced to do janitorial work, clerical work, landscaping and other jobs for free or $1 a day.

Those who refuse are threatened with solitary confinement.

Additional coverage:


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday April 18 2017, @09:23AM (1 child)

    by Wootery (2341) on Tuesday April 18 2017, @09:23AM (#495762)

    It's more subtle than that.

    In a society with no welfare system 'safety net', you work or you die, but we wouldn't call that slavery exactly.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday April 18 2017, @02:08PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday April 18 2017, @02:08PM (#495849)

    Not sure if you're being deliberately obtuse. If you're physically prevented from leaving and seeking other employment it's slavery.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek