SEATTLE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lowered detention standards at the Northwest ICE Processing Center under a new short-term contract, even as newly released internal records reveal more than 170 reported incidents of sexual abuse and assault occurred there over a roughly ten-year period, according to a new report by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.

Researchers found ICE and GEO Group, the private company that owns and operates the facility, ignored key evidence when conducting internal investigations, failed to incorporate federally mandated preventive measures and did not report crimes to law enforcement.

The findings come as the Tacoma immigration detention center is under likely the weakest standards ever applied to the facility since its opening in 2004, researchers said. In late March, ICE issued a seven-month “bridge” contract to GEO Group set to run until Oct. 27 while the federal agency determines future plans for the facility.

"We see that they're essentially acting as a lawless space, and now they've written a new contract saying, basically, they intend to continue to do so," said Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, director of the UW center. The center has published extensive research on human rights concerns at jail-like facility, including medical neglect allegations, sanitation issues and the use of solitary confinement.

ICE and GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Of particular concern, researchers said in Tuesday's report, is a clause in the new contract directing the facility to ignore state and local laws when they demand higher standards than federal law.

That language appears to invalidate local efforts to provide oversight, such as a state law requiring the facility to allow the state’s Department of Health to conduct inspections. Those inspections, which continue to be blocked by GEO Group despite a federal court order, are the subject of an ongoing legal battle.

The new contract also mandates additional capacity above local zoning limits, up to 1,635 beds from 1,575, and includes provisions that could further delay medical care in emergency situations. While the standards used in the last contract, the Performance-Based National Detention Standards, are considered high but rarely, if ever, enforced, “now it's going to be even worse,” Snodgrass Godoy said.

“It really is a matter of life or death,” Snodgrass Godoy said. “This cannot continue to be a case where we’re granting a federal agency that already is not respecting the Constitution just absolute power over the lives of our neighbors.”

ICE and GEO Group publicly state they have a “zero tolerance” policy toward sexual abuse and assault, but researchers said they found serious deficiencies in those claims.

Researchers combed through over 6,000 pages of internal documents and four hours of video footage recently obtained through ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation against the Department of Homeland Security.

There were at least 172 separate reported incidents of sexual abuse or assault from January 2015 through March 2025, according to released internal ICE and GEO documentation.

Of those incidents, ICE and GEO’s own investigation found 19 reports were substantiated and 90 were unsubstantiated, meaning it’s unclear whether it took place but it may have, and 36 were designated as unfounded. Most incidents involved abuse allegedly committed by detained people, while 51 involved allegations of abuse by facility staff, with one of those cases substantiated.

Among some cases deemed “unsubstantiated,” researchers found strong evidence that reported sexual abuse or assault did in fact occur.

In one case labeled “unsubstantiated,” a detained man reported being forced to perform oral sex on another detained man four different times in June 2024. The man’s account was later upheld by DNA evidence analyzed by the Tacoma Police Department. By then, the victim and perpetrator were no longer at the detention center, and police closed the case.

The case casts doubt on the rigor of ICE and GEO Group’s investigative process, Snodgrass Godoy said.

In another case deemed “unsubstantiated,” an internal investigation into a sexual relationship between a facility staff member and a detained man uncovered more than 700 calls between the two and hundreds of text messages that included sexual banter and romantic comments. Under federal law, a detained person cannot legally consent to such a relationship.

A GEO Group administrator first learned about the relationship in April 2023 and reviewed video showing the two “in close proximity to one another" during the staff member's shift. But the administrator ultimately did not notify police because “no criminal conduct was alleged,” according to ICE documents. ICE was not informed of the relationship until March 2024, at which point the staff member was no longer employed at the facility.

In at least 54 cases, facility personnel declined to notify law enforcement because staff considered the reported abuse “less than criminal” in nature. These reported abuses included verbal threats, voyeurism, unwanted touching and indecent exposure, which fit the definition of sexual abuse in federal guidelines and laws.

Even cases where sexual abuse was substantiated were not referred to police, researchers found. In one such instance, a detention officer was dismissed after an April 2024 allegation that a staff member sexually abused a detained person was substantiated, but the case was never referred to police.

“The fact that arguably federal crimes may be being committed (and) there's simply no even attempt to report them is really deeply worrisome,” Snodgrass Godoy said.

The new contract and release of internal records comes as the Trump administration continues its $45 billion plan to vastly increase immigration detention capacity. What happens after the "bridge contract" expires remains to be seen.

Immigrant advocates and detention researchers say they’re concerned ICE is considering purchasing the Northwest ICE Processing Center, among other GEO Group facilities. ICE has not released any information publicly related to buying the detention center. Under ICE ownership, facilities could avoid state oversight and expand capacity beyond local zoning rules.

Language in the new contract indicates ICE is already looking to take more liability over the facility. The new contract provides GEO Group assurances that the federal government will shoulder significant responsibility if the company is sued as a result of its work at the detention center, including having ICE substituted as the defendant.

“That ICE is willing to put itself as a full-throated defense of all of these types of crimes is a worrisome trend,” Snodgrass Godoy said.

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(Material from The Seattle Times archives was used in this report.)

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