FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UGOCHUKWU GOODLUCK Nos. 21-36024 NWAUZOR; FERNANDO 22-35026 AGUIRRE-URBINA, individually and on behalf of all those similarly D.C. No. 3:17-cv- situated, 05769-RJB Plaintiffs-Appellees, ORDER v. CERTIFYING QUESTIONS TO THE GEO GROUP, INC., a Florida WASHINGTON corporation, SUPREME Defendant-Appellant. COURT STATE OF WASHINGTON, Nos. 21-36025 Plaintiff-Appellee, 22-35027 v. D.C. No. 3:17-cv- 05806-RJB THE GEO GROUP, INC., Defendant-Appellant. Filed March 7, 2023 Before: Mary H. Murguia, Chief Judge, and William A. Fletcher and Mark J. Bennett, Circuit Judges. 2 NWAUZOR V. THE GEO GROUP, INC. SUMMARY * Certification Order / Washington Law In a case in which federal civil immigration detainees— who are held in the Northeast ICE Processing Center (“NWIPC”), a private detention center in Tacoma, Washington, operated by GEO Group—challenge GEO’s practice of paying them less than the State’s minimum wage to work at the detention center, the panel certified the following questions to the Washington Supreme Court: 1) In the circumstances of this case, are the detained workers at NWIPC employees within the meaning of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act (“MWA”)? 2) If the answer to the first question is yes, does the MWA apply to work performed in comparable circumstances by civil detainees confined in a private detention facility operating under a contract with the State? 3) If the answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second question is no, and assuming that the damage award to the detained workers is sustained, is that damage award an adequate legal remedy that would foreclose equitable relief to the State in the form of an unjust enrichment award? * This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. NWAUZOR V. THE GEO GROUP, INC. 3 COUNSEL Michael W. Kirk (argued), Charles J. Cooper, J. Joel Alicea, Joseph O. Masterman, and Tiernan B. Kane, Cooper and Kirk PLLC, Washington, D.C., for Defendant-Appellant. Jennifer D. Bennett (argued) and Neil K. Sawhney, Gupta Wessler PLLC, San Francisco, California; Gregory A. Beck, Gupta Wessler PLLC, Washington, D.C.; Jamal N. Whitehead, Adam J. Berger, Lindsay L. Halm, and Rebecca J. Roe, Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, Seattle, Washington; Robert Andrew Free, Law Office of R. Andrew Free, Atlanta, Georgia; Meena Pallipamu, Meena Pallipamu Immigration Law PLLC, Seattle, Washington; Devin T. Theriot-Orr, Open Sky Law PLLC, Kent, Washington; for Plaintiffs Appellees Ugochukwu Goodluck Nwauzor and Fernando Aguirre-Urbina. Marsha J. Chien (argued), Andrea Brenneke, and Lane Polozola, Assistant Attorneys General; Robert W. Ferguson, Attorney General of Washington State; Office of the Washington State Attorney General; Seattle, Washington; for Plaintiff-Appellee State of Washington. Christopher J. Hajec and Gina M. D’Andrea, Immigration Reform Law Institute, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae Immigration Reform Law Institute. Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, National Employment Law Project, New York, New York, for Amicus Curiae National Employment Law Project Inc. Kwi “Kat” Choi and Robin L. Goldfaden, Deputy Attorneys General; Vilma R. Palma-Solana and Marisa Hernandez- Stern, Supervising …
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals