The GEO Group, the private prison company that runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., was awarded a contract Wednesday worth about $1.5 billion to keep operating the 1,575-bed facility for up to 10 years, according to federal procurement records.
Federal contracting data on SAM.gov shows that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention compliance and removals office signed the contract Wednesday, Oct. 28, with work beginning the same day. The contract covers detention, security, health care, and transportation services at the facility, with orders allowed through Oct. 27, 2036. ICE received one offer. No money has been committed yet, because under this type of contract funds are committed through separate orders.
The new contract follows a sole-source agreement with GEO for housing at the Northwest ICE Processing Center that ran from March 28 through Oct. 27. USAspending.gov shows $63.2 million obligated under that agreement. GEO’s previous 10-year contract for the facility expired in 2025 and was worth at least $700 million.
The listed solicitation date is Saturday, Aug. 29. ICE had posted a solicitation for four turnkey detention centers on Friday, Aug. 28, as Project Salt Box reported the next day.
One of those sites, a 1,500-bed facility near Seattle, listed the Tacoma center as its historical location. The Tacoma record includes no solicitation number, and ICE has not said whether the contract came out of that solicitation.
Project Salt Box assesses that the contract is highly likely to stem from that solicitation, given the closely matching dates, the 10-year length, and the solicitation’s description of the Tacoma center.
That solicitation included a clause saying state law would not apply to a contractor’s work when it would regulate that work. It is unclear whether the Tacoma contract carries the same language.
The Seattle portion of the solicitation also required contractors to guard detainees held in hotels. A guard addendum calls for contractor detention officers to staff up to 10 hotel rooms at a time, on an as-needed basis, for “temporary lodging for migrant families and juveniles” for up to 72 hours.
Each occupied room would have two officers, one of the same sex as the detainee inside the room and one of the opposite sex outside, with a shift supervisor on duty while anyone is housed at the hotel. The officers would be unarmed or armed as ICE’s 2026 detention standards require. The addendum names a DoubleTree hotel at 18740 International Blvd. in SeaTac, and says the work could extend to “any other local hospitals or hotels as needed.” ICE reserves the right to add or change locations without changing the contract price. It is unclear whether the Tacoma contract carries these duties.
Do you have information about this contract or the Tacoma facility? Current and former government employees, contractors, and detention staff can reach Project Salt Box at projectsaltbox@proton.me or on Signal at mwriston.410.
The facility, about 30 miles south of Seattle, has drawn repeated scrutiny. It has 1,575 beds and held nearly 1,460 people in mid-August, according to members of Congress who visited, The Seattle Times reported.
Two detainees died there in 2024. Charles Leo Daniel, 61, was found dead Thursday, March 7, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., later asked the Government Accountability Office to audit ICE health care. Jose Manuel Sanchez-Castro, 36, died Sunday, Oct. 27, days after being booked in. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled his death natural, caused by a perforated duodenal ulcer, in a finding reported in March 2026. A 911 recording obtained by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights captured a nurse saying he had been going through fentanyl withdrawal. His widow and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project have sued ICE for records.
ICE has said detainees receive a health screening within 12 hours of arrival and that emergency care is not denied.
A 2020 University of Washington report found that the facility held people in solitary confinement longer, on average, than any other ICE facility. A Department of Homeland Security inspector general report in May 2023, based on an unannounced visit in 2022, found the facility met several detention standards. It also found that more than 30% of medical staff positions were vacant, and it made eight recommendations.
In February, three men held at the facility sued GEO in Pierce County Superior Court, accusing guards of assault and sexual abuse in 2024. The lawsuit also alleges that the company falsified reports to ICE and conducted sham internal investigations, The Seattle Times reported.
GEO Group and the federal government have said repeatedly that the facility meets rigorous standards.
The University of Washington Center for Human Rights found 157 reports of assault, sexual abuse, or other sex crimes at the facility to Tacoma police between Jan. 1, 2015, and Jan. 1, 2025. Detained people were the reported victims in 139 of them, or 89%. The center found that police apparently made no contact with the victim in 64% of the cases involving detained people.
Responding to the report, GEO spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said that the allegations were part of a politically motivated campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention, The Seattle Times reported in February.
In June, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said the state Department of Health had received more than 3,500 complaints about the facility, including neglected medical care, contaminated food, and unsanitary conditions. In July, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ordered GEO to let state health inspectors in, excluding areas ICE controls for administrative and medical purposes. KUOW reported in August that state officials were still being blocked from inspecting.
Also in August, more than 140 detainees ended a nearly weeklong hunger strike over food and medical care. A GEO spokesperson told The Seattle Times that ICE is responsible for health care at the facility. ICE declined to comment.
These facilities are not talked about enough on Legacy News outlets. When Dems take congress, they have their necessary work cut out for them.
The DHS just keeps spending-clearly they don’t believe they will be reined in anytime soon. Not good for so many reasons.