ICE awards new 10-year WA detention center contract to GEO Group

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded a new 10-year contract to the GEO Group for the immigrant detention center in Tacoma, one of the nation’s biggest. The huge Florida-based prison and detention company will receive $1.5 billion for the length of the contract.

A notice appearing on the government website SAM.gov says the contract is “to provide comprehensive detention, security, healthcare and transportation” at the site and also to support unspecified services.

The contract, first reported by the government watchdog group Saltbox on Substack, does not make clear whether GEO will continue to own the facility, as it has for many years.

ICE, in an August request for proposals to run “turnkey” detention centers near Seattle and three other cities, said it was considering buying one or more of those facilities.

The request for proposals, which is more detailed than the notice on SAM.gov, also said that it does not expect…