Former Immigrant Detainees Defeat Motion to Dismiss by Private Prison Company that Forced Them to Work for $1 Per Day

On September 24, 2024, a federal district court advanced claims brought by a putative class of former civil immigration detainees, represented by KLLF and co-counsel Worker Justice Center of New York, against defendant Akima Global Services (AGS), a for-profit corporation that operates the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York. The lawsuit concerns AGS’s exploitative practice of forcing detainees to provide labor and then failing to pay them wages, instead giving them $1 per day or less in commissary credit, regardless of the number of hours they worked.

In denying AGS’s motion to dismiss, the federal court rejected AGS’s argument that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) was a required party to the action. The court ruled that the lawsuit was properly brought against AGS because it challenges “AGS’s apparent coercive threats to detainees, AGS’s deprivation of phone access and recreation in response to Plaintiffs’ refusal to perform labor, as well as the windfall AGS allegedly received from detainee labor in compensating detainees at a rate below minimum wage.”

The case is Yeend et al. v. AGS, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, and the Court is expected to rule on plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in the coming months. Plaintiffs are represented by KLLF attorneys Ali Frick and Alyssa Isidoridy.

To read the Memorandum Decision and Order, please click here.