TACOMA, WA – Washington’s Department of Health stands ready to inspect the state’s only immigrant detention center after a court ruling last month.
State inspectors for years have been pushing for access to the heavily scrutinized, 1,575-bed private facility in Tacoma known as the Northwest ICE Processing Center. But the private operator of the site and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have blocked them.
That could be just weeks away from changing.
“As soon as we are legally allowed to go in there, we will,” said Lauren Jenks, the Department of Health’s assistant secretary for environmental public health, who is among the agency staff who have been turned away trying to inspect the detention center during visits dating back to 2023.
The state and the detention center’s operator, Florida-based GEO Group, have been battling in court since the passage of a state law that year aimed at providing greater oversight of the controversial facility.
Among other requirements, the law called for The GEO Group to provide fresh fruits and vegetables, air conditioning and heat, free telecommunication services, weekly mental health evaluations and rooms with windows.
The law also required the state departments of Health and Labor and Industries to conduct routine, unannounced inspections of the for-profit detention center, which holds immigrant detainees before deportation or release back into the United States.
GEO sued over the 2023 law, claiming the state was overstepping its authority. A federal judge in Seattle ordered an injunction blocking the Department of Health from conducting those inspections and enforcing the law’s heightened standards.
But last month, a panel of judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed that order, paving the way for state health inspectors to get in the detention center. GEO on Tuesday petitioned the court for another hearing on its lawsuit.
Now, officials believe they just need that appeals court ruling to be finalized, then they’ll have the legal underpinning to inspect the detention center.
Early this month, Jenks and other Department of Health officials returned to the center to try to assess the water quality, but GEO denied them entry. State health officials have been turned away from the facility more than half a dozen times in the past couple years.
“There was nothing that would lead us to believe that their opinion had changed,” Jenks said. “But since we’re not barred from doing it, we decided to go again.”
In this case, officials spoke to two people who said they were from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The immigration agents said they “were not prepared to allow us entry into the facility,” Jenks said, adding that they were receptive to the water quality concerns.
The Department of Health has received more than 2,400 complaints over an array of issues at the detention center, including about drinking water.
“That gives us some clues about what might be going on and it might be something that we could help with if we could get in and see,” Jenks said.
If inspectors do gain access, they’ll first have to respond to specific complaints, rather than conducting routine, unannounced inspections.
Those latter examinations will have to wait until the Department of Health finalizes rules on GEO’s new requirements, which is months away. Whether routine means every year or some other timeframe is something the state will iron out in rulemaking.
The law says failing to comply with new state standards can result in fines of up to $10,000 per violation
Examining the drinking water would be a top priority. Other issues raised in complaints to the agency include access to medication, sanitation and concerns that seem to stem from crowding, like the number of beds being put into some rooms, said Joe Laxson, the policy director for the department’s environmental public health division.
The detention center has a history of allegations of mistreatment, abuse and neglect of detainees. It has faced renewed concerns as more detainees have been sent there with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Labor and Industries inspectors have been allowed in to examine workplace conditions, including in September 2024 when they found no violations.
The state has been taking in complaints from people held at the center for a couple years with little ability to investigate and verify them.
“I am super frustrated that we know that there’s people who are hurting and we haven’t been able to help problem-solve what’s happening there,” Jenks said. “People in a detention center like this are among the most vulnerable people in Washington, and who’s looking out for them?”
GEO didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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