WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against a private prison company facing a lawsuit alleging immigration detainees were forced to work and paid only $1 a day in Colorado.
The unanimous ruling is a procedural defeat for the GEO Group, but it’s not a final decision. The company is fighting a lawsuit from 2014 alleging detainees in Aurora had to perform unpaid janitorial work and other jobs for little pay to supplement meager meals.
GEO defended its practices and argued that the case should be tossed out because it’s immune from lawsuits as a government contractor.
After a judge disagreed, the company asked the Supreme Court to allow it to quickly appeal the ruling. But the justices refused.
The Florida-based GEO Group is one of the top private detention providers in the country, with management or ownership of about 77,000 beds at 98 facilities. Its contracts include a new federal immigration detention center where Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at a protest in May 2025, before the case against the Democrat was dropped.
Similar lawsuits have been brought on behalf of immigration detainees elsewhere, including a case in Washington state, where the company was ordered to pay more than $23 million.