The Department of Justice has announced a significant federal indictment in the Northern District of Georgia charging Zhu Chen, Jiayi Chen, and Jianjun Lu with forced labor, conspiracy to commit forced labor, and alien harboring. The case, brought as United States v. Zhu Chen, Jiayi Chen, and Jianjun Lu, underscores how federal prosecutors are continuing to pair labor-exploitation allegations with immigration-related charges in high-stakes criminal enforcement actions.

According to DOJ, the indictment alleges a combination of coercive labor practices and unlawful harboring of noncitizens.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected GEO Group’s effort to obtain an immediate appeal in litigation alleging that immigration detainees were forced to work while held in private detention facilities. The ruling does not decide the underlying labor claims, but it is a consequential procedural loss for the private prison company: the detainees’ civil suit moves forward, and GEO cannot pause the case by invoking a contractor version of sovereign immunity.

The dispute centers on whether a private company performing detention services for the federal government should be allowed the same kind of immediate appellate review sometimes available to government officials or entities asserting immunity from suit.