Mealey's ( August 15, 2025, 10:38 AM EDT) -- SEATTLE — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) after the panel majority ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity....