Republican lawmakers support forced labor for imprisoned immigrants

• The congressmen argue in the letter that undocumented immigrants should not be able to sue prison companies because they aren’t employees there, and claim forced labor saves the government money and improves prisoners' morale.
• The letter was signed by Lamar Smith, Jody Hice, Matt Gaetz, Steve King, Mike Rogers, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert, Dana Rohrabacher, Paul Cook, Scott Taylor, Earl “Buddy” Carter, John Ratcliffe, Duncan Hunter, Bob Gibbs, Barry Loudermilk, Brian Babin, and John Rutherford.

GEO group response: Spokesman Pablo Paez pushed back, pointing to the fact that the Obama Administration established standards for Voluntary Work Programs at all ICE detention centers and that the wage rates are set by the federal government, not private companies.

• "GEO is required to abide by these federally mandated standards and congressionally established guidelines," he told Axios, "GEO has consistently, strongly refuted the allegations made in these lawsuits, and we intend to vigorously defend our company against these baseless claims."