U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has opened an inquiry into how Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded GEO Group a new 10-year, roughly $1.5 billion contract to keep running the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, a facility where detainees have reported inconsistent medical care, poor water quality and feces in their food. The Washington Democrat is demanding to know why federal officials moved so quickly to lock in the deal, and whether ICE still intends to buy a detention facility somewhere in the Seattle area.
Murray wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seeking information about the contract, which GEO Group has said is worth about $90,000 per bed over 10 years for roughly 1,600 beds. According to KUOW, Murray alleged that ICE rapidly secured the contract specifically to avoid public scrutiny of new detention facilities, and she asked for details on the funds ICE intends to use, the agency's justification for handing GEO Group another decade-long deal, and whether ICE still plans to purchase existing facilities in the region.
The senator's questions land as Democrats prepare to take over significant majorities in both chambers of Congress following the 2026 midterms — a shift that will let party members compel testimony at hearings and shape future federal agency funding. Murray is set to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, giving her added leverage over the budget decisions that finance ICE's detention operations.
A Contract Finalized Just Weeks Ago
GEO Group announced in October that it had finalized the new management agreement for the Tacoma facility, which it has operated for years. The company said in a news release that the deal is a 10-year management contract for support services at the GEO-owned, 1,635-bed facility, expected to generate approximately $140 million in annual revenue for the company and run through October 27, 2036. The company's prior 10-year contract to manage the center expired in 2025, the same report notes.
Bed counts for the facility have varied across accounts: the same outlet reported in August that the Tacoma center holds 1,575 beds, while its more recent reporting cites federal records putting the figure at 1,635. U.S. Rep. Emily Randall has said GEO Group was the only bid considered for managing the facility, according to the same report.
Detainees at the facility have described waves of sickness and inconsistent medical care, along with poor water quality and feces in their food, the outlet's reporting states. Murray has said ICE appears to be diminishing lawful local oversight and weakening protections for detainees and workers — concerns that track with ongoing fights over who gets to inspect the facility at all.
A Fight Over Who Can Inspect the Facility
Washington officials have said they have been refused entry to inspect the Tacoma center on 10 occasions and have logged roughly 3,500 detainee complaints amid litigation over access, according to WIRED. In federal court, GEO Group has argued that local health inspectors should be barred from the facility and that detainee workers should not receive the state minimum wage, while ICE has maintained in federal documents that supremacy rules shield private contractors from local or state oversight of the facility near Seattle.
Washington law gives the state Department of Health authority to inspect a private detention facility at any time to determine whether it has failed to comply with applicable standards or other state and federal rules, according to Washington State Legislature statute. That statutory authority does not by itself settle how the new federal contract or any pending court order affects access to the Tacoma facility.
ICE has also posted draft contract terms seeking 5,500 detention beds across Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania and Washington that explicitly state stricter state or local laws would not apply, the Los Angeles Times reported. GEO Group CEO George Zoley has said ICE is contemplating buying more than 10 facilities nationwide while GEO continues to operate them, and described an administration plan for fewer, larger detention sites with a normal capacity of about 100,000 people.
Rising Arrests Across Washington
ICE has continued to arrest and detain hundreds of immigrants in Washington, including people without criminal convictions, even as the Tacoma contract dispute plays out. Data reported by NWPB show ICE arrested more than 2,100 people in Washington between October 2025 and early March 2026, averaging about 13 arrests a day; of those, about a quarter had a criminal conviction and about 26% faced pending charges. The outlet cautioned that the figures may undercount actual arrests because the dataset excludes Customs and Border Protection arrests and some records lack a state listing.
Murray has said many administration officials intend to weaponize the immigration system to cause suffering to families, and that most detainees associated with the Tacoma contract have no criminal record and have families, lives and jobs in the United States. She has pointed to Stephen Miller, who was elevated to White House chief of staff in 2026 and is widely regarded as the architect behind much of President Trump's mass deportation effort, as central to that strategy.
ICE's push for new detention capacity is not limited to Washington. DHS purchased two CoreCivic facilities for $1.5 billion, part of a broader pattern of ICE expanding its detention footprint through purchases and long-term management contracts with private operators like GEO Group.
