EPA drops case against prison company that has donated heavily to Trump

The Guardian

20 hours ago

The Donald Trump administration has dropped up to $4m in potential fines against the private prison operator Geo Group over the latter's use of a toxic disinfectant in a detention center that allegedly put employees' and detainees' health at risk.
The administration made the move after Geo donated over $4m to the president and Republican leadership, as well as Trump's inauguration fund.
Geo is a key piece of the administration's immigration crackdown, and the federal government has paid it billions of dollars to hold US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees.
The company faced fines of up to about $3,550 for each of its approximately 1,100 violations for failing to provide its workers with protection from a toxic disinfectant heavily sprayed at its Adelanto, California, immigration facility in 2022-2023.
The US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Justice changing course after the election is 'highly unusual', Gary Jonesi, a former EPA enforcement manager who retired earlier this year, told the Guardian. He called it a 'complete surrender'.
'If this is not due to political intervention on behalf of an early and large Trump donor who stands to gain from managing Ice detention facilities and private prisons, then surely it is at least partly due to the intimidation that career staff feel in an environment when federal employees are being fired and reassigned to undesirable tasks and locations,' Jonesi said.
In an email, the EPA said: 'As a matter of longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on litigation.'
Geo said: 'The case was dismissed with prejudice because the allegations were completely baseless and without merit.'
'GEO's COVID safety protocols at the Adelanto Facility focused on cleanliness and health, successfully protecting the lives of thousands of detainees in our care,' a spokesperson added.
The disinfectant, called Halt, includes an EPA warning stating: 'Causes irreversible eye damage and skin burns. Harmful if swallowed or absorbed through the skin. Do not get in eyes, on skin, or on clothing.'
Among its ingredients are quats, a chemical class that's under increased scrutiny for links to infertility, birth defects, hormone disruption, asthma and skin disorders. It also includes tetrasodium EDTA, a chemical made from formaldehyde and sodium cyanide.
A separate civil lawsuit alleges Geo sickened inmates with its indiscriminate spraying of a similar disinfectant, HDQ Neutral, with most of the same ingredients. That is playing out in federal court, and plaintiffs allege, among other issues, the disinfectant causes blood clots in their lungs, nosebleeds, dizziness and headaches.
The suit alleges staff sprayed the substance throughout the prison, 'including the front lobby, administrative areas, living areas, food and microwave areas, day room, corridors, intake units, and medical units. In the living areas, GEO staff would spray onto all surfaces including on soft, porous surfaces like mattresses and sheets'.
The suit also alleges the substance got in detainees' food, and in one instance staff sprayed a detainee as punishment.
EPA records show the agency cited Geo in March 2021, at which time it was using HDQ Neutral. It switched to Halt and continued spraying through early 2023. Geo fought the charges in administrative law court beginning in June 2024.
The disinfectant is regulated under US pesticide laws, which require the use of goggles or a face shield, chemical-resistant gloves and protective clothing. Geo provided gloves for its staff, but the EPA noted the nitrile gloves' box stated that they were 'extra soft' and 'not intended for use as a general chemical barrier'.
Geo argued that the gloves were sufficient for the chemicals in the disinfectant.
If the two sides didn't settle, then an administrative law judge would decide the amount, if any, that Geo would have to pay. It's unclear how the negotiations played out, Jonesi said, but in its motion to dismiss, Geo suggested it would take the case in front of a jury, questioned some of EPA's findings and questioned if the agency had overstepped its authority.
There were 'litigation risks', which is common in enforcement cases, Jonesi said. Under normal circumstances, if EPA enforcement officials felt they might lose in court, then they would probably offer a settlement with a much lower fine.
'Instead they just walked away and said 'We're not going to bother' – that's very unusual,' Jonesi said.
Geo and its affiliated Pacs donated heavily to Trump Pacs and Republican congressional campaigns, federal election records compiled by the Open Secrets nonprofit shows. That included a $1m to Trump's Make America Great Again Pac, and over $1.2m to the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund. Geo also contributed $500,000 to Trump's inauguration. Geo was the first company to max out political donations to Trump's campaign.
In his first day in office, Trump reversed a Biden executive order that aimed to curb the federal government's use of private prisons. Ice is holding about 50,000 people in immigration detention, an approximately 50% increase since January, though not all are held at Geo facilities.
The EPA case is one of many that raises questions about favors in exchange for campaign donations, but it is 'a more egregious case than most', said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with the Public Citizen nonprofit, which advocates for government transparency.
'Trump rewards his friends, and friends are those who give him money, and friends are those who comply with his edicts, and one of his main edicts is on immigration,' Holman said.
With Republicans fully in control of the government, there's little that can be done in response, Holman added, unless Democrats retake at least part of Congress in 2026.
'The midterm elections means everything,' Holman said.