Following a federal judge's ruling, a lawsuit claiming that a private U.S. prison company forced thousands of detained immigrants to work for $1 a day, has reached class-action status. The advancement to class-action status expands the case's scope and could now involve up to 60,000 detained immigrants. The private prison company, GEO Group, denies the allegations and believes that paying detained immigrants $1 for its volunteer work program is not illegal. The program exists nationwide in ICE facilities, and allows detainees to voluntarily work up to eight hours per day, but the original plaintiffs in the GEO case claim they were forced to choose between working and solitary confinement. The case claims that GEO Group is in violation of federal anti-slavery laws.
See "Thousands of ICE detainees claim they were forced into labor, a violation of anti-slavery laws", Kristine Phillips, The Washington Post, March 6, 2017