Civil Rights Groups Sue Over Immigrant Labor At ICE Facility

A lawsuit claims that immigrant detainees at Stewart Detention Center are forced to perform work like cooking, cleaning and janitorial duties at just pennies per hour. 

Kate Brumback / Associated Press

The Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Columbus Tuesday against CoreCivic, the private contractor who runs the Stewart Detention Center in West Georgia.

The suit claims that immigrant detainees there are forced to perform work like cooking, cleaning and janitorial duties at just pennies per hour.

“Core Civic is paying individuals in the work program $1 and $4 a day,” said Meredith Stewart, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center. “No one is making minimum wage, which is a windfall for Core Civic.