GEO Group barred Washington state health inspectors from its Tacoma ICE detention center despite an upheld state oversight law

On April 20, 2026, The GEO Group refused to admit Washington State Department of Health inspectors to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, the privately operated immigration detention facility it runs under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was the most recent of repeated refusals; the state had attempted to inspect the facility roughly ten times since 2023, and in an earlier attempt GEO directed inspectors to route their request through ICE's Seattle field office rather than granting entry.

Washington's 2023 detention-oversight law authorizes the state health department to inspect private detention facilities operating within the state. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that law in 2025 and, in February 2026, denied GEO's requests to rehear the case and to pause enforcement. Despite the upheld statute, GEO continued to deny inspectors access to the facility, where the state said it had received more than 3,500 complaints describing conditions such as contaminated food, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical care that it was unable to investigate.

On April 28, 2026, Governor Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown asked a federal court to compel GEO to admit the inspectors, announcing the motion at a press conference. GEO Group has maintained that the facility operates under federal authority.

Updates

2026-07-09 — Federal judge ordered GEO to admit state inspectors, stayed for appeal [2, 4]

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle granted Washington a preliminary injunction requiring GEO Group to admit state health inspectors to the facility, though not to areas controlled solely by ICE for administrative and medical operations. Finding that "the State raises compelling concerns for the health and safety of the detainees" and that "GEO has the duty to allow the State access," the judge stayed the order for two weeks to allow GEO to appeal.