A new 10-year contract between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and private company GEO Group will make the migrant detention center on Tacoma’s tidal flats a lasting part of the federal immigration system for years to come. The company expects to receive about $140 million a year—or roughly $1.4–$1.5 billion over the agreement’s term, which runs through October 27, 2036—to operate a facility designed to hold 1,635 people.
For Tacoma, this is less a new construction project than an extension of a long-established arrangement. Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group has owned and operated the Northwest ICE Processing Center since 2005. Behind tall fences along the industrial waterfront are people whose immigration cases have yet to be resolved. Their detention is formally civil, not criminal, though detainees’ day-to-day experience does little to reinforce such legal distinctions.
GEO itself announced the contract signing on October 29. The agreement, as the company describes it, covers more than just beds: it includes security, food, maintenance, transportation, access to medical care, and recreational facilities. The company calls the center an important part of federal infrastructure and ties the agreement to the administration’s efforts to expand immigration detention capacity.
The scale of the deal is also striking compared with the previous contract. In 2015, GEO won the right to continue operating the center for another 10 years; at the time, the company estimated annual revenue of about $57 million at full capacity. The new forecast of $140 million a year reflects both an increase in stated capacity from 1,575 to 1,635 beds and much greater federal demand for space to detain migrants.
But in Washington state, the facility has long been a symbol of the conflict between federal immigration policy, private business, and local oversight. In April, state officials said they had received more than 3,500 complaints from people held at the center. The complaints included concerns about food and water quality, sanitation, medical care, and alleged violence. GEO challenged the state’s authority to inspect the facility, arguing that it operates under a federal contract.
In July, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that inspectors from the state Department of Health could visit most of the center, except for administrative and medical areas controlled by ICE. But the dispute did not end there: GEO obtained a stay of the order while its appeal is pending. So the contract, which promises the company 10 years of predictable revenue, begins as the question of external oversight of conditions inside the building remains unresolved.
A separate court case concerns the work performed by detainees themselves. In 2021, a jury and the court ordered GEO to pay a total of $23.2 million in cases involving its practice of paying people $1 a day for work in cleaning, laundry, and food service. In January 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in favor of the state and former detainees. GEO appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the matter has yet to be finally resolved.
The current contract does not resolve these tensions—it simply makes them a long-term fixture. For GEO, the Tacoma center is a profitable, company-owned asset and a guarantee of 10 years of work. For ICE, it is a reliable hub in the Northwest. For detainees, their families, and the city, it means that a facility surrounded by years of protests, lawsuits, and disputes over human dignity will remain part of the local landscape at least through the fall of 2036.
Based on: ICE awards new 10-year WA detention center contract to GEO Group