She was participating in a voluntary work program that allows detainees to earn $1 a day to help with the upkeep of the facility. Now, Xahuentitla’s case could affect up to 60,000 immigrants who were held in the facility over the course of a decade. GEO attorneys in court papers said ICE requires detainees to keep tidy living quarters, but plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the work detainees were compelled to perform went far beyond the scope of the housekeeping requirement. By relying on the free work of the detainees, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued, GEO maintains its entire facility with just one janitor on the payroll. “It’s wrong to force anybody to work under threat of solitary confinement for no pay; that’s just wrong,” Milstein said.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 05, 2017 12:56 UTC