Although... private prisons—which have federal contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house people accused of civil violations of immigration law until they are deported or released—can legally require detainees to clean up their personal areas, the lawsuit alleges that at least one of the nation’s major detention contractors compelled detainees to work without pay, cleaning up common areas as well... The immigrant detainees were allegedly required to clean and maintain common areas for free, even as GEO raked in $2.2 billion in revenue and had nearly $163 million in adjusted net income last year.

... After a November inspection, the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General found the publicly run Theo Lacy Jail Facility in California violated that rule as well by requiring detainees to clean common-area showers. And another lawsuit filed in May against CoreCivic, the nation’s largest private prison operator, challenges similar labor practices at its San Diego immigration detention center.