This panel brings together three speakers to discuss the ongoing human rights violations against detainees held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. The detention center is a private, for-profit facility that holds immigrants awaiting civil immigration proceedings. In September 2017, Washington’s Attorney General  led a lawsuit against GEO Group, the center’s operator and one of the nation’s largest private prison providers, for violating Washington’s minimum wage laws. Detainees are paid $1 per day—or, in some cases, snacks—to perform tasks necessary to operate the facility, including cleaning, maintenance, laundry service, and food preparation. Over the past year, detainees have engaged in multiple hunger strikes to protest unfair labor conditions, among other things. Panelists will discuss the state’s case against GEO Group, the ongoing hunger strikes, and the environmental hazards of the detention center.

Speakers will be La Rond Baker, Assistant Attorney General; Maru Mora-Villalpando, activist and leader of the NW Detention Center Resistance, and Megan Ybarra, Assistant Professor of Geography at UW.