ICE’s New Detention Center Contracts Declare State Laws ‘Will Not Work’

US Immigration is Customs Enforcement is on the way its private network through federal regulators, publishing memorandums of understanding declaring that state and local laws “shall not apply” to these offices, according to federal documents reviewed by WIRED.

The new statement was published earlier this month, a day after a federal judge ruled that the deal could not violate state law and ordered that ICE’s largest detention facility in the Pacific Northwest be opened to public health officials in Washington.

The ruling, handed down by United States District Judge Benjamin Settle, came after three years of evasion; 10 refused to visitaccording to the government; and 3,500 arrested complaints. A Ninth Circuit judge stayed the ruling on July 21, with a longer-term ruling expected in early August.

Settle ordered an employee at a refugee center in Tacoma to agree with Washington health officials, saying there is nothing in the company’s contract that prohibits them and that no contract would exceed state law in any case. The next morning, on July 10, ICE published arrest warrants for 5,500 people in four states – including language declaring that state and local laws “shall not apply” to the facility.

Settle found that GEO Group, the prison company that owns the Tacoma facility, entered into a new contract with ICE amid the lawsuit to support the company’s claims that ICE, not GEO, controlled access to the facility. “Self-defense requires the intent of Congress, not a treaty,” Settle replied, “and the new GEO treaty cannot preempt state law, even if it does.”

Settle also noted that the court GEO sued had left out part of the agreement in which ICE agreed to ask the Justice Department to remove GEO from prosecution for its conduct, or to substitute ICE as a defendant.

A new procurement document, sent to the government contracting agency on July 10 is It was first reported by Project Salt Box newspaperit is designed as a way to start competing with businesses, but its wording suggests otherwise. Places must start construction within 30 days of receiving the award – a time frame that a new building cannot meet – and the number of beds and spaces required. connect to a four-person locker GEO is already operating: in Tacoma; Aurora, Colorado; Pompano Beach, Florida; and Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.

Florida’s requirement, 700 beds, matches Pompano Beach’s bed capacity exactly, according to ICE findings. Four regional agreements expire in the coming months: The Tacoma agreement expires on October 27, and the Pennsylvania regional agreement expires on September 28. GEO security records show that the Colorado and Florida agreements expire in October and September, respectively.

Companies had less than a week to respond before the window closed on July 17.

Contract documents are new. But the language trying to repeal the state law is not: It appears word for word in the Tacoma agreement that GEO signed in Marchbetween the case—the contract itself Stability rules “It wouldn’t stop the state’s laws, even if they did.” ICE now wants to add three more countries.

Settle refused the language once. But the decision is preliminary, does not bind a court outside of Washington, and for ICE purposes it should not survive. Washington needed three years of litigation to bring inspectors to the door of one facility — and they’re still outside, suspended and sitting while GEO appeals. Enshrined in contracts in four states, the same language could start the war in all of these states at the same time.