Private prison profiteer GEO Group has been sued by former immigrant detainees for paying them $1 a day—sometimes less, sometimes nothing at all—for their forced labor, and running to GEO Group’s defense is a group of 18 congressional Republicans who penned a letter to Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III defending the practice:
GEO Group filed the congressmen’s letter with U.S. District Court in the Central District of California on March 12 as part of the Novoa v. GEO Group suit. It argues that immigrants should not be able to sue prison companies because they aren’t employees there, and that paying them $1 per day for their work is lawful. The letter also said that forced labor saves the government money and improves detainees’ morale.
Congressmen wrote that the work program’s purpose is to “(1) enhance detention operations and services through detainee productivity; and to (2) reduce the negative impact of confinement through decreased idleness, improved morale, and fewer disciplinary incidents.”
“Unless your agencies act to intervene in these lawsuits, immigration enforcement efforts will be thwarted,” the letter reads.
The letter was signed by Lamar Smith, Jody Hice, Matt Gaetz, Steve King, Mike Rogers, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert, Dana Rohrabacher, Paul Cook, Scott Taylor, Earl “Buddy” Carter, John Ratcliffe, Duncan Hunter, Bob Gibbs, Barry Loudermilk, Brian Babin, and John Rutherford.
Unsurprisingly, GEO Group and CoreCivic, another private prison company, have donated to six of the letter’s signatories since 2015, including Congressmen John Rutherford, Scott Taylor, Paul Cook, John Ratcliffe, and part-time Fox News correspondent and full-time Trump lackey, Matt Gaetz.
Last year, three immigrants died within the span of three months at California’s Adelanto Detention Facility, a prison run by GEO. One of the detainees, Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, died six days after attempting suicide by hanging. This is the prison group that Republicans are defending, but when you’ve already ignored multiple deaths, why should forced labor make any difference?