Tacoma Police Department repeatedly failed to respond to reports of sexual abuse and assault experienced by people held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, according to a new report by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.
The report, which published Thursday and reviewed 10 years of 911 call and police records, documents numerous cases in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and facility staff deterred Tacoma police from investigating reported crimes.
Crimes that occur at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which receives federal funding but is privately-run by GEO Group, “fall squarely” in Tacoma Police Department’s jurisdiction, the report said.
But researchers found more than 60 instances of facility staff or immigration officials disparaging the credibility of victims, or telling police they planned to investigate incidents “in-house” — even in cases where guards or physicians at the facility were the alleged perpetrator. As a result, Tacoma police often failed to pursue further action, such as interviewing alleged victims, researchers said.
“I was really surprised, disappointed and … aghast at how badly the Tacoma Police Department is failing to do its job,” said University of Washington Center for Human Rights director Angelina Godoy, who led the research.
“They’re not attempting to exert the lawful role they have.”
Tacoma police were less likely to contact victims of alleged abuse or assault when the person was a detainee compared with when victims were facility staff, researchers found.
Across the 157 reports of assault, sex crimes or rape at the facility between 2015 and 2025 reviewed by researchers, nearly 90% involved a detained person as a victim.
Among those cases, Tacoma police directly contacted detainees who were victims only 36% of the time. In comparison, police directly connected with facility staff who reported being a victim 88% of the time.
Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd said in a statement the agency is “reviewing and evaluating the information presented in the report to provide a response.”
GEO Group “strongly disagrees with the allegations” outlined in the report, said spokesperson Christopher Ferreira in a statement. The facility has “comprehensive” policies for reporting and investigating incidents, he said.
“These allegations are part of a long-standing, politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government’s immigration facility contractors,” he said in a statement.
ICE spokesperson Alethea Smock said in a statement the department “has zero tolerance for all forms of sexual abuse or assault against individuals in the agency’s custody.”
Detention facilities are required to notify both ICE and local law enforcement of any allegations involving potentially criminal behavior, Smock said. This allows local police to independently investigate cases of abuse or assault.
“The agency’s policies and procedures foster an environment where staff and detainees are encouraged and feel comfortable reporting allegations without retaliation for bringing concerns to light,” Smock said in a statement.
But researchers said their review revealed these federal regulations and internal policies were routinely violated.
On at least 15 occasions, Tacoma police officers told 911 callers from the detention center the department did not have jurisdiction over crimes there, referred them to federal authorities or back to the detention center.
“What’s disturbing is here, we see public employees of Tacoma essentially allowing this violence to happen,” Godoy said. “They were straight up saying to people, ‘That’s not our problem.’”
The detention center has been heavily scrutinized by state lawmakers, city officials and local advocacy groups for years. Efforts by Washington agencies to close or increase oversight of the facility have faced legal pushback from GEO Group.
Reports of violent attacks, sexual assaults and beatings by facility guards have long been disregarded by Tacoma police, said Rufina Reyes, executive director of La Resistencia, a local immigrant rights group that advocates for the closure of the detention center and the end of deportations.
“They call the police, and the police say, ‘I can’t do anything’ and just ignore (them),” Reyes said. “The police say, ‘No, no, I don’t have interest.’ “
Reyes said the report’s estimate of crimes at the facility may be an undercount. Many detainees do not report abuse or assault for fear it may impact their immigration case, she said, or have difficulty notifying authorities because they do not speak English.
The state’s only immigration detention center, the facility has about 1,575 beds and is now nearly full, as President Donald Trump’s administration ratchets up efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants. Detainees at the facility include both people immigration officials arrested locally and people flown in from elsewhere in the country.
University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights researchers has documented a slew of issues at the facility in recent years, including severe medical neglect, dirty food and water, and the overuse of solitary confinement, among other concerns. Hunger strikes by detainees to protest conditions inside the facility are frequent.
Material from The Seattle Times archives was used in this report.
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