Supreme Court to Hear Case on Detainee Labor and Sovereign Immunity

On October 22, 2014, a class action lawsuit was filed by over 60,000 detainees of GEO Group’s Processing Immigration Center against GEO Group Inc. for violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and unjustly enriching itself under unlawful labor practices. The class of detainees alleged that they were forced into labor by threats of facing solitary confinement. They allege that they were forced to clean common areas, walls, floors, toilets, tables, chairs, and windows, as well as run the understaffed processing center for $1 a day. In 2017, the class was certified by the U.S. District Court of Colorado. GEO argued that the case could not proceed as the company was subject to derivative sovereign immunity because the Group was complying with government orders under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with respect to labor, punishment, and wages.

In October 2022, the U.S. District Court of Colorado held that GEO was not subject to sovereign immunity because they acted beyond the orders ICE and ruled that the class action could proceed. GEO appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and the Tenth Circuit held that they could not review the issue of sovereign immunity before trial on the merits, so the issue was not appealable. GEO petitioned the Supreme Court arguing that the issue on sovereign immunity could be heard on appeal before trial.

On June 2, 2025, the Supreme Court agreed to hear GEO’s appeal. Depending on the Supreme Court’s ruling, the decision will impact not only the future of the subject case but also the Circuit Courts, establishing uniformity. Currently, the Circuits are split on whether denials of sovereign immunity can be appealed, with the Second, Sixth and Eleventh Circuits permitting the appeals and the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits denying it. With controlling, uniform law established, the applicability of derivative sovereign immunity for similar cases will no longer be dependent upon which Circuit the lawsuit is filed in.