OAKLAND, Calif. — Immigrant rights advocates are calling on The GEO Group—a $4 billion private prison corporation that operates immigration detention centers nationwide—to immediately end what they describe as the forced labor of detained immigrants, according to a press release from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).
The California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Worksafe, along with National COSH, allege that GEO compels detained immigrants to perform essential facility labor for as little as $1 per day—boosting corporate profits while federal taxpayers foot the bill through lucrative government contracts.
GEO was recently named to National COSH’s 2025 “Dirty Dozen” list, which highlights companies accused of endangering worker safety and violating labor rights.
“Working for The GEO Group while detained at the Golden State Annex was nothing short of forced labor,” one former detainee stated in the National COSH release. “We had no safety training, no protective gear—only punishment if we refused.” The anonymous former worker described being stripped of rights and said collective organizing became essential to defending basic dignity. “No one should be exploited for profit behind bars,” the individual added.
The former detainee is among seven individuals who filed a 2022 complaint with Cal/OSHA, alleging unsafe working conditions at the Golden State Annex. According to the complaint, detainees were required to perform critical cleaning and maintenance tasks in eight-hour shifts, all for just $1 a day. Unsafe conditions led dozens to strike and sue GEO. Cal/OSHA later fined the company over $100,000, including for a “willful” failure to implement protocols protecting workers from airborne disease—violations that coincided with repeated COVID-19 outbreaks, National COSH reported.
Across GEO facilities nationwide, detainees have reported being coerced into labor under threats of solitary confinement, restricted commissary access, or loss of visitation rights. Despite the risk of retaliation, many have continued organizing through hunger strikes, petitions, and work stoppages, according to National COSH.
National COSH publishes its Dirty Dozen list annually during Workers’ Memorial Week, which runs from April 23 through May 1. The week commemorates workers who have been killed, injured, or made ill on the job, and calls attention to ongoing workplace hazards. The 2025 Dirty Dozen report cites more than 5,000 preventable workplace deaths annually, and over 120,000 deaths due to long-term exposure to toxic substances. In 2023 alone, employers reported more than 2.6 million workplace injuries and illnesses—though experts believe the actual number is much higher.
GEO has faced ongoing allegations of labor and human rights violations at several California detention centers, including Mesa Verde, Golden State Annex, Adelanto, and Desert View Annex. Detainees at these facilities continue to resist what advocates describe as exploitative and dehumanizing conditions.
“We deserve fair wages for our labor—no matter where we were born,” said the anonymous former detainee. “We must hold companies like GEO accountable for labor violations and human rights abuses, and we must stop expanding a system that profits from detention, coercion, and inhumane treatment.”
