McHenry County is taking an unusually bold swing at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking a court to make the federal government cover any liability tied to claims that immigrant detainees were used as unpaid labor. The move drops a long‑running local budget battle, one that once brought in millions, straight into a national legal showdown over when jails and contractors can dodge lawsuits for work they say was carried out under federal orders.
The county’s 2022 lawsuit asks the federal government to pay any damages that might come out of an earlier case brought by six former detainees, who allege they were ordered to sweep, mop, wipe tables, and clean showers and toilets without pay. ICE had historically paid the county about $95 per detainee per day, and an average of roughly 240 detainees a day from 2016 to 2021 brought in more than $41 million for McHenry, according to the Chicago Tribune. County attorneys argue the Trafficking Victims Protection Act is being misapplied, a stance Assistant State’s Attorney Troy Owens labeled “absurd.”
State Law Cuts Off County's ICE Cash
Everything changed after Illinois passed a 2021 law that barred local jails from entering or renewing contracts to hold ICE detainees. The statute effectively shut down McHenry’s federal detainer deal and set off a wave of detainee transfers to out‑of‑state facilities or federal processing centers. As reported by the Northwest Herald, the county tried to fight the law in court and lost, a ruling that sped up the removal of detainees from the local jail.
National Litigation Could Shape Local Exposure
McHenry’s case is unfolding while courts around the country grapple with a bigger question, whether detention operators and contractors can avoid liability when they say they are simply following federal instructions. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear The GEO Group’s appeal on derivative sovereign immunity, according to the Legal Information Institute, and related litigation has already produced multi‑million dollar verdicts. Washington state, for example, won a roughly $17.3 million jury award and a separate $5.95 million unjust‑enrichment judgment over detainee labor, according to the Washington Attorney General.
Plaintiffs' Claims And The County's Defense
The six former detainees say they were pressured into performing maintenance and kitchen work without fair pay and under threat of discipline, allegations that form the backbone of the civil case. County officials respond that detainees were expected only to keep their own cells and day areas reasonably clean, and they insist that routine housekeeping of personal spaces is different from the kind of coerced labor barred by federal law.
Legal Implications
The lawsuits lean on forced‑labor provisions in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and on related wage laws. The Department of Justice describes those statutes as tools to tackle coercion and involuntary servitude in labor settings, including through civil claims. How judges interpret the TVPA and whether public jails or private contractors can successfully invoke derivative sovereign immunity will decide whether potential liability lands on private operators, the federal government, or local taxpayers, a question already front and center in the GEO Group case now before the Supreme Court.
What Comes Next
McHenry’s effort to shift or limit its exposure is expected to drag on for months or even years as appeals and related cases move forward, and a ruling that goes against counties or contractors could carry hefty financial consequences. Local officials say the loss of the ICE contract forced McHenry to pivot to smaller, short‑term agreements that bring in only a fraction of the former federal revenue, according to the Northwest Herald.
