Lawsuit Alleges Labor Violations at Immigrant Federal Detention Center Run By Private Contractor

The Worker Justice Center of New York (WJCNY) has filed suit in New York’s Supreme Court against the private, for-profit company, Akima Global Services (AGS), for exploitation of detained immigrants at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in New York. Plaintiffs allege that, while detained, they were hired by AGS to perform manual labor in the facility. Instead of wages, AGS paid them $1 per day in commissary credit, regardless of hours worked.

The lawsuit alleges that AGS’s practice of crediting detainees one dollar per day for many hours of labor violates the New York State Constitution and various provisions of the labor laws, including the minimum wage law.

AGS contracts with the federal government to operate the Buffalo Federal Detention Center and is paid a daily rate for each bed filled. By requiring detainees to perform essential functions at well below the legal minimum wage, AGS avoids hiring non-detained employees to work for fair market wages, thereby depressing the local economy and increasing its own profits.

The Times Union published a front page story on the litigation, quoting WJCNY Legal Director, Rob McCreanor: 

“When we look at this particular situation in Batavia, what stands out is that this is a private company that is contracting with the federal government and is making a lot of money off that contract. That is in part due to the free labor that they are getting from immigrants in civil detentions that aren’t prisoners serving terms for crimes — they are immigrants who are detained waiting a resolution for a civil immigration matter. It’s a gross violation of their rights.”

Read the full Times Union article, ‘Borders on slavery’: Suit claims labor violations at Batavia immigration facility, and see our full press release on the case here. 

KJ