Licensed to Contaminate - The Margin

This is the second part of our investigation into alleged complaints at the Northwest Immigration Processing Center. You can read the first part here. Please note this article contains mention of suicide, self-harm, and sexual violence.

The Puyallup River flows through the Tacoma Tideflats of Washington state, where a migrant detention center sits on a former branch of the river channel. It is also the site of a former slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant.

The migrant detention center, privately owned by The GEO Group and currently known as the Northwest Immigration Processing Center (NWIPC), is built on the Tacoma Tar Pits—part of an EPA Superfund site. Some of this waste is under a prone-to-failure asphalt “cap” situated at a higher elevation, causing it to flow downhill toward the detention center’s southern property line. To the west, a former bulk fuel terminal has contaminated the groundwater with diesel, gasoline, and motor oil, all of which flow directly toward the detention center. Additionally, the site previously housed a slaughterhouse that contaminated the soil with petroleum products and metals. The toxic chemicals from the previous century gel and unfurl in the groundwater beneath the detention facility in ways that are not fully understood.

Meanwhile, migrants—many of whom have no criminal record—drink from the water faucets, take showers, and breathe the air. When they do, they have complained of seeing dark water flowing from the taps that sickens their digestive systems, been afflicted with rashes on their skin after showering, and sickened by gasoline exposure, even as air conditioning systems are shut down during extreme temperatures, according to records obtained by open records law.

The NWIPC is also a place where detained migrants have complained of, and alleged, physical, sexual, and verbal abuse and medical neglect at the hands of staff. This is a story of how those with authority have, thus far, failed to prevent these human rights abuses. 

The GEO Group, Inc., which owns the facility has a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that expired last month (September 2025). Neither GEO Group nor ICE has announced whether the contract has been renewed. Jurisdiction is shared between several local, state, and federal agencies, specifically the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The city of Tacoma issued building permits for the facility to be constructed in 2002 and expanded in 2008. The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) has jurisdiction to conduct criminal investigations at NWIPC, where, according to federal records, GEO Group is guaranteed a minimum of 1,181 detainees.

The city of Tacoma’s Employees’ Retirement System (TERS) owned shares in two funds that held corporate GEO Group bonds as of December 31, 2024. Mayor Victoria Woodards is the Chair of the TERS board.

In response to this, a Tacoma spokesperson stated, “It is understandable how the presence of any controversial holding in TERS’ portfolio, no matter how small, raises questions.” The spokesperson went on to state that the city’s retirement board can’t invest in “any single company within large, diversified portfolios.” The spokesperson stated what investments are made, “is not a choice the City or the TERS Board makes.”

“The TERS Board has a non-negotiable, legally mandated fiduciary duty to see to it that TERS’ assets ensure the long-term security of its members. TERS Board members cannot, by law, place their own personal or political beliefs above that fiduciary duty,” according to the spokesperson.

One former NWIPC detainee requested to use the pseudonym Roxanne for safety reasons. Born in Mexico, Roxanne lived through domestic violence, survived attempts at her life, and fled to the United States to survive; she sought asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“When I turned myself in to the officers at the border, I was denied the opportunity to seek asylum,” Roxanne said. “I was discriminated [against], I was verbally attacked, and I was forced to sign an involuntary removal [order],” she added. 

By Roxanne’s account, U.S. border officials sent her back to Mexico, where she was kidnapped by cartel members and held for ransom. Roxanne said this is increasingly common with more deportations from the U.S. to Mexico. 

“[Cartels] kidnap people and force them to communicate with their families and request huge [amounts] of money, and if families are unable to pay them, then they just don’t set them free or they simply disappear,” she said. 

After paying the ransom, Roxanne stayed the night in a cartel-controlled hotel, and she returned to the border the next day to seek asylum again. She was turned away again. “[Later], I tried a third time. I turned myself in to the officers, but this time I was detained by the sheriff officials and [taken] to a detention center,” she said. Being detained allowed her enough time to locate an attorney who would advocate for her asylum claim.

Released from detention, Roxanne said she went to the Pacific Northwest, where she faithfully attended her check-in appointments, until one day, she was arrested by ICE at her check-in appointment, and taken to the NWIPC in Tacoma, where she was faced with xenophobic detention officers. “‘Here, we speak English. This is America,’” Roxanne recalled being told by the GEO Group guards. She continued, “There was a lot of racism.”

Pathways of Contamination

Complaints made from January 2023 to February 2025 to the Washington Department of Health (WADOH), obtained via open records request, reveal reports of contaminated drinking water from various units across the detention center. A significant majority of these reports originated from units in the southeast building, which the GEO Group added in 2009.

Legal records show the land for the detention center, built before 2004, is under a partial consent decree with the EPA and the Department of Justice. This decree requires that any use of the land must not disturb remedial actions, thus prohibiting the use of groundwater or the disturbance of the cap containing toxic wastes. According to an EPA spokesperson in a statement to The Margin, “GEO Group did not violate land use restrictions established in the 1991 Partial Consent Decree related to the Tacoma Tar Pits site. The NWIPC building expansion occurred outside of the Tacoma Tar Pit’s protective cap, and groundwater was not used.”

In 2003, DVR, LLC (DVR), a limited liability company, implemented institutional controls through a restrictive covenant due to residual concentrations of diesel and heavy oil. DVR then granted property to Correctional Services Corporation LLC (CSC), which the GEO Group would later acquire. The restrictive covenant contains eight sections, including the prohibition of groundwater use, the prevention of activities that could compromise the integrity of the voluntary cleanup program for the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), the prohibition of actions that might cause the release of hazardous substances into the environment, and the prevention of the creation of new pathways for exposure. Additionally, the restrictive covenant requires the landowner to notify and obtain approval from Ecology for any use of the property that is inconsistent with the restrictive covenant. Once the restrictive covenant was filed with Pierce County on March 27, 2003, a “No further action letter [NFA]” Ecology issued to DVR on March 7 of that year took effect. In the NFA letter, Ecology stated it can rescind the “no further action” determination if GEO Group violates the requirements of the covenant.

According to a publicly available EPA report, in 2008, the GEO Group’s construction of an addition to the detention center violated Section Six of the restrictive covenant because GEO Group was required to obtain written approval from Ecology before starting construction.

A GEO Group spokesperson claimed in a news article at the time it was unaware of any violations of the restrictive covenant, stating it received required permits from the City of Tacoma. However, statutory warranty deed records show that, in being granted the property from DVR, the restrictive covenant and other relevant restrictions—most notably, a partial consent decree with the EPA—came with the property. In other words, these restrictions were granted by DVR to CSC in 2003—and therefore, to GEO Group in 2005.

“The GEO Group did not inform us about the expansion," an Ecology spokesperson said at the time, as per the covenant, GEO Group is required to notify Ecology of construction that could cause a release of contamination into the environment. After informing GEO Group of the violation, Ecology committed to “working with the company to properly handle construction at the site to meet the state’s requirements.”

In 2003, CSC began construction of the NWIPC, with the auguring of holes for stone columns to support the foundation. These columns were installed to a depth of about 45 feet below the surface of the ground. In 2008, GEO Group expanded its facility by adding several buildings. Notably, a large, three-story building was constructed on the southeast corner of the existing compound using essentially the same auguring technique for stone column installation, with 40 foot-deep columns spaced on a grid of approximately every eight feet. In all, hundreds of these holes were augured.

The new building’s location and the underground stone columns meant the drilling may have gone through a known contaminated site, even as GEO Group’s contractors stated on January 22, 2009, that construction activities were, “unlikely to have resulted in a release.” GEO Group’s consultants, who had tested groundwater from three wells adjacent to where the southeast addition would be in June 2008, stated that two of the three wells contained no polyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, but that, “Low levels of anthracene and phenanthrene were detected” in a sample taken from where the southeast addition would be constructed. Very high levels of lead were detected in one site adjacent to the southern edge of where the southeast addition would be constructed. GEO Group then hired a separate contractor to conduct additional lead testing, which found no dissolved lead in the area where it was previously detected at high levels.” Ecology became aware that GEO Group’s contractors had begun construction on December 9, 2008. On December 23, 2008, an email from Tamara Langton, EPA Remedial Project Manager for the Superfund site, to the Washington Department of Ecology expressed concern that the construction could breach an area known to be contaminated with petroleum products and affect surrounding soil and groundwater. 

“I can't tell with certainty that the expansion isn't negatively impacting the 2002/2003 cleanup action (of most concern is the auguring for stone foundations on or close to the SP‐8 cleanup area),” Langton wrote. An analysis later penned by Langton stated that another site (SP-11) was likely breached by the auguring in 2008-2009. Despite the violation, Ecology worked with the GEO Group to mitigate the problem via a voluntary cleanup action.

In 2008, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), led by Tim Smith, alerted Ecology, EPA, and the City of Tacoma. They expressed concern that auguring for the stone columns had punctured the EPA Superfund cap, opening a potential pathway of contamination to NWIPC detainees and workers. In December 2009, the EPA’s analysis concluded that BORDC’s concerns were unsubstantiated, stating the Superfund cap had not been compromised by the construction activity. In responses provided to The Margin for this story, EPA stated it is not currently aware of any impacts from the Tacoma Tar Pits site to the NWIPC. However, less than 20 years later, detainees are complaining to the Washington Department of Health about contaminated water in the very building addition BORDC had originally raised concerns about. 

Below the Surface: Contamination within the NWIPC

The below visual highlights how recent unapproved construction coupled with surrounding pollutants and underground water flows exacerbate the reports of contamination within the NWIPC.

In an interview, Peter Knappett, associate professor in hydrogeology in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Texas A&M University cited a legacy of industrial contaminants to the west and south of the detention center based on his analysis of Ecology and EPA reports. Knappett reviewed groundwater contour maps from a site to the west of the detention center that was previously a Chevron bulk oil storage facility and stated the groundwater is flowing steeply toward the detention center. 

“There were observations even in the parking lot of the detention center of high overall levels of petroleum products in the shallow groundwater,” he said. Knappett added the groundwater contaminated with petroleum products in the western part of the site “has a continuous contaminant plume that goes at least underneath the parking lot of the [detention center] building.” Monitoring wells adjacent to the NWIPC have both revealed diesel and heavy oil above Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) cleanup levels in both aquifers, at approximately seven feet below the pavement.

Knappett continued that if holes were drilled through both contaminated aquifers, it would open “cross-formational flow.” He said whenever construction of any kind occurs and holes are made across horizontal geologic layers, “Then you’re opening up potential conduits for water contamination, things to go up or go down.”

“There’s no reason to think that a contaminant plume would stop in the parking lot and not continue to flow down gradient,” he said. Knappett added since contaminants were sourced from the surface, it is likely they remain present throughout the soil zone. 

From 2023 to 2025, as the levels of diesel and heavy oil rose in groundwater monitoring wells adjacent to the detention center, so did detainee complaints of contaminated water, according to publicly available documents and documents obtained by public records act request. Complaints made by detainees also note water systems being out, coming back on again very cold or hot, or pipes breaking. Lauren Jenks, Assistant Secretary of the Environmental Public Health Division in WADOH told The Margin, “There's likely some sort of maintenance issues or pipe issues or something like that, that's causing some of the things that people are complaining about.” Joe Laxson, the policy director in WADOH's Environmental Public Health Division added that in a complex plumbing system like at the NWIPC, circulation needs to be maintained. “From our water program’s perspective, that could be the main issue, that there just isn't routine maintenance happening on the plumbing,” he said. 

When asked about contaminated water complaints, an Ecology spokesperson responded that they haven’t received complaint records from DOH and don’t have updated information. “[T]herefore, we don’t think an interview at this time will be beneficial,” the spokesperson said. “[T]he water supply for the building is city drinking water, which should be a pressurized system. This means that if there were cracks in the pipe, water would push out, and any contamination would not be able to enter the pipes. The pipes are in the upper feet of soil, and any soil contamination around the property (e.g., Chevron Bulk) is deeper.” An Ecology spokesperson stated if DOH’s investigation “indicate[s] there is a possible environmental concern, then Ecology can investigate under the full authority of the [MTCA].”

A WADOH spokesperson stated it “has not specifically shared the complaints with [Ecology] because there is not an apparent pathway for the clean-up sites near the NWIPC to impact the water supply. The plumbing for the building is typically located above grade and should not have a direct path for contamination.”

GEO Group and ICE have allegedly denied state officials access to enter and test the water in the secure areas of the facility, including the units with the highest number of contaminated water complaints from detainees from 2023 to 2025. During the 2023 legislative session, the Washington state legislature passed HB 1470, which the governor signed into law, allowing the state Department of Health to investigate complaints made by detainees, including those of drinking water contamination. GEO Group sued the state to prevent such inspections, allegedly denying an in-person inspection of the secured area of the facility attempted by a DOH technician in July 2024. GEO Group denies this allegation. According to an analysis by The Margin of DOH records released under public records law, there are nearly 100 contaminated drinking water complaints from 2023 to 2025.

Reports of Contamination

The Washington Department of Health has captured reports of contamination from within the NWIPC as told from detainees or from the families of detainees. The complaints accessible below via the map or buildings list span from 2023 to 2025.

On August 19, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an injunction entered by the Western District of Washington that prevented the state of Washington from entering the facility to test the water in all parts of the facility. When DOH recently sent representatives to the facility on September 3, following the court ruling, they were again denied access by the GEO Group facility administrator and ICE staff. 

“We believe we have authority to [test water in all parts of the facility] in two different ways, under the Secretary’s authority and then under the new law that has passed to allow us to inspect it and respond to complaints there,” Jenks said.

The August Ninth Circuit Court decision removed the injunction that prevented WADOH from entering the facility, but the district court has not yet mandated that inspectors from WADOH be allowed to enter the facility. When asked what WADOH would do if they were denied access after the district court entered such an order requiring that they be given access to the NWIPC, Jenks said, they’ll take it to the state Attorney General.

Years earlier, in 2018, Mayor Woodards said in an interview, “If we were to be notified by an agency responsible for health and welfare, and they evaluated (the NWIPC) through a health-and-welfare lens and found there to be a violation, then we could look into those violations.”. A Tacoma spokesperson clarified to The Margin these comments were general in nature. 

Tacoma Mayor Woodards shared the following statement with The Margin:

In an audio recording obtained by public records act law, a WADOH employee states a meeting was held between WADOH, the Tacoma Mayor, and a Tacoma Police Department (TPD) deputy chief. (A Tacoma spokesperson responded regarding this meeting, “While Mayor Victoria Woodards is kept apprised of inter-governmental affairs regarding a variety of issues, neither she nor her staff have met with [WADOH] to discuss specific complaints from facility detainees regarding conditions in the facility, as health and welfare complaints fall within the purview of the [WADOH].” A WADOH spokesperson confirmed the City of Tacoma representative was not from the mayor’s office.) The WADOH spokesperson stated the meeting established, “a protocol for how DOH reports complaints to TPD that we receive that are of a criminal nature.” According to the records obtained by open records law and statements from TPD officials following that meeting, WADOH is to call 911 and make a report,which according to a TPD spokesperson, would lead to TPD following standard procedures.

According to the Washington State Investment Board, which oversees the investment of Washington public trust and retirement funds, “As of March 31, 2025, the WSIB owned 58,426.29 shares of The GEO Group Inc. with a market value of $1,706,631.92.”

“They can do anything with impunity”

Roxanne recounted being harassed by several fellow detainees. “I would go to the officers, and I would tell them what was going on, but they wouldn’t do anything,” she said. The harassment continued. Fellow detainees stole her panties. “I would try to approach the officers, but they wouldn’t say anything. They would simply say, ‘go back to your bed.’” When she pushed the person in an attempt to retrieve her underwear, she was attacked from behind. Roxanne was scolded by an officer and later a supervisor.

While Roxanne did not make official reports, her story reflects many other experiences at NWIPC, repeated, over and over, in thousands of detainee complaints, as detailed by records obtained via open records law from WADOH and detailed by the University of Washington Human Rights Center (UWCHR).

According to an April 2, 2024 TPD incident report, a detainee alleged that during a routine unit search, the GEO Group officer told the detainee to, “Come here.” “The [GEO Group officer] then put his hand in [the detainee’s] pants and squeezed his ‘private parts’ multiple times,” according to the report. On the same day, a second detainee alleged the same GEO Group officer “touched [another detainee] inappropriately during a pat down [search].”

As stated in a log from the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system obtained by public records act law, the following day a separate GEO Group officer reported the alleged assault to Tacoma Police Department (TPD) on the first victim’s behalf. The report reads: “An officer in [the Administrative Review Unit]” attempted to call back this GEO Group officer, but they were no longer on shift. Instead, the officer spoke with yet another GEO Group officer who stated they were conducting an internal investigation and “would notify [TPD] once the investigation was completed if necessary.”

On April 15, 2024, one of the alleged victims called TPD to ask why officers had not collected his statement. According to a report, he said the 911 dispatcher later informed him that a GEO Group officer had prevented TPD from entering the facility to investigate. “All of this is recorded on [GEO]’s cameras,” the complainant stated in a grievance submitted to WADOH and obtained by The Margin via public records act law.

According to the CAD report, on May 20, 2024, a TPD detective learned of one alleged assault while investigating the other. Over a month later, on June 25, 2024, TPD detectives visited NWIPC to investigate. The visit followed a call on June 21 from the attorney of one of the victims, who officially reported the second assault.

Based on the TPD detectives’ report, they visited NWIPC and spoke with an investigator, who “advised that an investigation into the allegations of both the complaint from [one of the alleged victims] as well as the other complaint was completed and deemed unfounded,” according to the South Sound 911 incident report. The investigator added that both complainants reside in the same POD (a self-contained housing unit), and there was information about possible contraband there or on the detainees. The GEO Group investigator stated to TPD that a Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) was deployed, and all detainees were temporarily removed and PAT searched. Afterward, detainees were returned to the POD. TPD detectives did not interview any alleged victims, according to the incident report

The GEO Group investigator then provided TPD detectives with a copy of the internal investigation, and a handwritten statement by the GEO Group officer accused of the sexual assaults, “denying placing his hands inside the detainee’s pants during the pat down.” TPD Detectives stated that this evidence would then be forwarded to the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office for review. The incident reports do not indicate that the investigators contacted either victim for an interview.

An internal report of the investigation into one of the assaults conducted by the GEO Group was released to The Margin in response to an open records request. At the time, the GEO Group officer in question led a CERT team.  The GEO Group investigator who communicated with TPD Detectives, stated in the internal report that, concerning the alleged assault, "Video footage is unavailable. The PAT search was conducted outside the view of the camera." Later in the report, however, a GEO Group sergeant, separate from the investigator, contradicted the first allegation: "CCTV shows [the GEO Group officer accused of sexual assault] conducting a pat search in accordance with proper policy and procedure." No mention of this footage—or lack thereof—was made by TPD detectives in their incident report.

According to a Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson, that office did not receive a copy of the GEO Group’s internal investigation nor any surveillance footage. The spokesperson responded to questions from The Margin, “After reviewing the evidence submitted by TPD, charges were not filed from this incident. In any prosecution, we need sufficient evidence, probable cause to believe a crime occurred, and a basis to believe that the charge can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

A TPD spokesperson responded that the investigating detectives were not available by press time to confirm or deny whether they had reviewed surveillance footage. According to the incident report, on July 9, 2024, one of the TPD detectives received a document stating the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office was not filing charges against the GEO Group officer in either case.

Reports of Abuse

The Washington Department of Health has captured reports of abuse from within the NWIPC as told from detainees or from the families of detainees. The reports below span from 2023 to 2025.

Records indicate that the same individual accused of committing the two aforementioned assaults faced additional accusations. In February 2024, DOH records show a detainee alleged to have been subjected to “sheer retaliation” by the same GEO Group officer and his “CERT gang” after filing complaints. The complainant reported they had accused the same officer of sexual assaults and were told that, “I’m just a immigrants [sic]. Nobody is going to believe me.” The complainant concluded his grievance thus, “He is right about that because no one do [sic] anything about these dehumanizing and abusive behaviors. They can do anything with impunity, including sexual harassments.”

The following month, another detainee submitted a complaint, reporting a hunger strike involving every person in their unit. “We are probably going to be […] a subject of retaliation by ICE and GEO for our peaceful protest, but it has to be done. The condition is getting worse every day,” the complainant stated. They specifically accused the same GEO Group officer of “targeting detainees with mental health [sic] and others who [are] protesting about staff misconduct and other imperative issues.” The complainant identified the GEO Group officer’s “coconspirators,” whose names are withheld here. 

In November 2024, a detainee submitted a complaint that, upon returning to their cell, GEO Group officers had “destroyed” the room. “I confronted them about trashing my room and they laughed at me. As I was talking to [one GEO Group officer], [the GEO Group officer accused of the aforementioned sexual assaults] keeps on touching me,” the complaint stated. Another complaint, made the same day, stated the same GEO Group officer, accused of sexual assaults, “kept touching my arm. I told him to stop touching me. He kept doing it.” According to the complaint, another officer said, “let’s go to intake.” The detainee was roughly taken by the arm, they pulled away in response, then the GEO Group officer accused of sexual assaults and a third GEO Group officer, “retaliated slamming my head onto the ground, cuffing my hands and feet,” according to the complainant. One officer allegedly kneed the detainee in the right side of their ribs. “I couldn’t breathe and they damn near killed me. That’s assault, battery, and abusive force. It is on camera. I want to press charges and file a lawsuit,” the complainant stated.

GEO Group has surveillance cameras throughout the detention facility and records incidents, including those occurring in the minutes after Jose Manuel Sanchez Castro was found unresponsive on Oct. 27, 2024, at age 36. The Tacoma Fire Department responded, attempting to save his life. According to ICE, the cause and manner of Sanchez Castro’s death is currently undetermined by the Pierce County Medical Examiner. Sanchez Castro died after being under GEO Group’s medical observation for several days, when EMS was unable to save him after he was found unresponsive.

The allegations of assault have continued. 

On April 5, 2025, a GEO Group officer called 911 on behalf of a detainee to report a sexual assault. Because the alleged victim was Spanish-speaking, an interpreter was contacted. The interpreter spoke with the man over the phone and relayed his message. That same day, an incident report notes a TPD officer was dispatched to the NWIPC to investigate the detainee’s allegation of unwanted touching. The TPD officer called the NWIPC and spoke with the on-duty Lieutenant, who informed them they were aware of the situation. The officer reported, “[The Lieutenant] stated the reporting [alleged victim], was just having another ‘episode’ and talking with an inside psychologist,” adding it was not the only report he made and indicated “he was well known for making complaints and allegations against staff.”

Similarly, records reviewed by The Margin do not show that the TPD officer spoke to the alleged victim. On the 911 call, the alleged victim repeatedly said GEO Guards were trying to poison and kill him. He also claimed they tried to bribe him to conceal the name of the officer who allegedly sexually assaulted him. The TPD officer wrote in his report that he was unable to establish probable cause or any evidence of a crime.

On April 8, 2025, a call taker from the Rebuilding Hope Sexual Assault Center called 911 dispatchers to report a call from a detainee wanting to report unwanted physical touch at the NWIPC, but the detainee did not know the address. The 911 dispatcher, interpreting this as an alleged sexual assault, called the NWIPC to try to determine if the alleged victim was there. The dispatcher was transferred to a sergeant who informed the dispatcher that the detainee was in segregation and was considered to have a “mental altered status.” The dispatcher concluded the call stating, “I am not doing any documentation.”

Weeks later, on April 24, 2025, a GEO Group officer called 911 for a detainee who said he had been physically assaulted. The 911 dispatcher requested a TPD officer to call or go to the NWIPC. A TPD officer called the NWIPC and asked if GEO Group actually needed a response. The GEO Group officer who answered the phone said allegations of assault are usually handled internally

A few days after the previous incident, on April 28, 2025, a separate call taker from Rebuilding Hope Sexual Assault Center called 911 to report a detainee who had experienced sexual assault in December at the NWIPC and was now contemplating suicide. The call taker explained that the detainee said he had attempted suicide two or three times before. The 911 dispatcher relayed this information to the Tacoma Fire Department (TFD) and requested that emergency responders be sent to the NWIPC. During the call, the detainee’s report of suicidal ideation was shared with the TFD representative. The TFD representative stated, “We can’t enter that facility without their permission, so they’re going to need to contact the staff of that facility,” clarifying later in the call, “We can’t access that facility without a call from them.” The call ended.

After the call with the TFD representative ended, the dispatcher followed up by contacting the NWIPC to verify whether the situation was being addressed. The officer confirmed they were handling it and planned to speak with the person who made the complaint. The dispatcher then concluded the call.

The UWCHR recently published a report that found authorities often do not investigate detainee assault allegations. The report concludes that current policies fail to protect detainees or ensure accountability,asserting, "ICE and GEO often deter police investigations, and that TPD regularly fails to push back or follow up." 

A TPD spokesperson responded: "Following the publication of the [UWCHR] report, the Tacoma Police Department has clarified procedures and delivered departmental guidance reiterating its commitment to safeguarding constitutional guarantees and ensuring that safety, security, and respect for rights remain central to its role."

The over 1,300 complaints provided by DOH detail abuse, retaliation, and threats by GEO Group staff, poor quality food, medical neglect, and potentially contaminated drinking water. Weighed alongside 911 audio records and police incident reports, a concerning trend appears to emerge about the conditions in the GEO Group-owned NWIPC.

In response to our questions, an ICE spokesperson responded, "ICE remains committed to transparency and accountability... ICE operates in accordance with established laws and regulations, and we do not comment on rumors, allegations, or opinions."

A GEO Group spokesperson responded to our questions with the following statement:

"We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Over the last four decades, our innovative support service solutions have helped the federal government implement the policies of seven different Presidential Administrations. 

In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive.  In the event issues are identified, we quickly resolve all of ICE’s concerns as required by ICE’s Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan.

The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs. Additionally, all of GEO’s ICE Processing Centers are independently accredited by the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.

At locations where GEO provides health care services, individuals are provided with access to teams of medical professionals including physicians, nurses, dentists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Ready access to off-site medical specialists, imaging facilities, Emergency Medical Services, and local community hospitals is also provided when needed."

***

Detainees face abuses, yet cannot even call law enforcement for help without the assistance of the very same people who allegedly abuse them. Even when they do call out of the facility this way, the authorities charged with protecting them don’t always do so. As attempts to test water preempt investigations into water contamination, detainees are forced to choose whether or not to drink and bathe in potentially contaminated water.

For now, despite the revelations of this investigation, the answers to so many questions remain hidden within the chain link fence and concrete walls of the NWIPC, flowing in and through, the groundwater beneath its banal design, in the tide flats of Tacoma.

Roxanne was released from the NWIPC, and her lawyer continues to advocate for her asylum claim. “I feel free, but I don’t feel safe, especially because I live with that uncertainty of whether I’m going to be detained or not,” she said.

“What I would like for people to know is to not lose hope. They shouldn’t stop fighting—they need to continue fighting—to keep that faith because it is possible to leave from a detention center.”

***

Your donation supports in-depth reporting, data analysis, data visualizations, and original photography. Join us in the fight for environmental justice by contributing today — every dollar helps us tell the stories of the people and communities who have been and are currently experiencing injustice.