A jury trial is set to begin in federal court in Denver in a case against GEO Group that has been pending since 2014. The case concerns the labor of detainees at an immigration detention center in Aurora.
Current and former detainees at the Aurora Detention Facility filed the class-action lawsuit in October 2014. They accuse the private company, which runs the facility under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of violating the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). According to the plaintiffs, detainees had to clean not only their own living areas but also common areas, because otherwise they faced solitary confinement.
The second claim is unjust enrichment. The plaintiffs say the company paid them $1 a day under a “voluntary” work program.
According to Law360, a federal judge decided on Oct. 21 that the trial would be split into parts. It was set to begin on Nov. 2, according to the schedule. Earlier reports said the trial would last three weeks. In May, Judge John Kane also agreed to let jurors visit the facility, but set conditions for such a visit.
In recent days, GEO Group tried to halt the trial. The company appealed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, citing immunity. According to the Denver Gazette, a two-judge panel of the appeals court rejected the motion to stay the proceedings on Oct. 29. It gave no reasoning. Judge Kane had earlier found the appeal to be without merit.
The case has already been before the U.S. Supreme Court. In February 2026, the court ruled that the denial of a government contractor’s claim to immunity cannot be immediately appealed before trial. According to Colorado Newsline, that was a procedural decision, not a ruling on the merits of the case. The company says it operates in accordance with federal standards.
Source: Denver Post
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