GEO Group Inc. is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that wage theft, unjust enrichment and forced labor were practiced at the prison real estate investment trust's Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California.

The lawsuit filed in a Riverside, Calif., federal court may affect certain immigration detainees who rendered work at the facility. The wage class includes those who were detained since Dec. 19, 2014, and the forced labor class includes those who were detained since May 1, 2011, who either participated in the voluntary work program, worked with no compensation pending their participation in the voluntary work program, or worked uncompensated under the Adelanto Housing Unit Sanitation Policy.

GEO denied the claims and contended that it has fully complied with the law. A federal judge resolved that the suit should be a class action, but the court has yet to decide whether the REIT engaged in any wrongdoing.

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