The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a Seattle-based human rights group, filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in federal court on Tuesday, alleging violations of the Freedom of Information Act.
The complaint, filed in the Western District of Washington, challenges ICE’s failure to turn over public records relating to sexual abuse incidents at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, which is run by the GEO Group, a private detention services company.
“We’ve received … sporadic reports over the years of instances of either physical abuse or sexual abuse at the facility,” said Aaron Korthuis, staff attorney for the NWIRP. “There was a more recent one that we heard about, and heard that it got reported to 911 – and that I think in particular spurred our desire to file a more comprehensive request for information at the facility, and that’s what led to the lawsuit.”
An ICE spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, but has previously indicated the agency does not discuss matters related to ongoing litigation.
On Oct. 2, the NWIRP filed a public records request under FOIA in order to access an array of documents ensuring both ICE and GEO’s implementation and compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Some of these documents entail: audits regarding NWIPC conducted pursuant to the PREA; written reports on sexual abuse incidents; results and findings from GEO’s annual sexual abuse reviews at the facility; records of disciplinary actions taken in response to sexual assault allegations; and the outcomes of any sexual abuse allegations within the facility.
The lawsuit states that six days after the request was filed, ICE acknowledged it had received it – and said it would invoke a 10-day extension of FOIA’s 20-business-day requirement, meaning ICE’s response would have been due by Nov. 13.
Korthuis said the goal with this case is to empower those unable to legally advocate for themselves due to lack of immigration status, and “shed light on what people need to do if they’re trying to hold the agency accountable and learn what works, what their rights are, and what they can expect in that process.”
