ICE eyes former Newark facility, partnership with 2nd largest prison contractor for detention center

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is actively pursuing a contract to restart its operations in Delaney Hall in Newark through a partnership with GEO Group, the second-largest private prison contractor in the country.

The potential reopening of a second ICE facility in New Jersey, especially in Newark, hits close to the community and its vibrant immigrant population. It also comes during a year when immigration reform remains a top issue for Americans as they prepare for the 2024 election.

According to a poll from the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of Americans across both majority parties reported they want the federal government across branches to address immigration. The issue's importance within the Republican party has increased by 21 percent since the 2020 election and by 8 percent within the Democratic party since the 2022 election.

Just this weekend, Republican legislators misrepresented figures about the number of migrants with criminal convictions to project an image of weak immigration policies enacted by the Biden administration.

To learn more about Delaney Hall, GEO Group and the implications of this potential contract, The Daily Targum recently sat down with Jenny Garcia, a Rutgers alum and senior communications associate at Detention Watch Network, a national organization dedicated to bolstering communities in which ICE maintains a presence.

The Daily Targum also requested a comment from ICE on the subject but did not receive a response at the time of publishing.

History of Delaney Hall includes crimes, high rates of detention and political opposition

Garcia reported that Delaney Hall is currently empty and has likely been undergoing renovations since January. But the building typically serves as a halfway house, a term which she said describes a type of rehabilitation center for individuals with criminal convictions.

Historically, reports of issues such as wage theft, interpersonal violence and trade of prohibited items have arisen at the facility. Delaney Hall will also maintain contracts with other migrant detention facilities until 2027 and has the capacity to imprison 1,200 detainees.

This statistic is notable because the only ICE detention facility currently open in New Jersey, located in Elizabeth, can only hold around 200 individuals, Garcia said. A report from Detention Watch Network titled "If you build it, ICE will fill it," notes the risk that level of capacity holds for the Newark community.

"It's sort of saying that if there is an ICE detention center that exists in a community, then people in that direct community and across the state are more likely to be arrested by ICE," she said. "So if there's 1,200 beds available for ICE in a city like Newark, that is like a direct threat to like immigrant communities there."

In 2018, Newark was ranked first by the bipartisan think tank New American Economy in terms of how well the city acclimates new migrants into the country. Back then, their report found that Newark would have continuously experienced economic decline without such a robust migrant population, who would not have opted to reside in Newark without the infrastructure that the city had to support them.

Delaney faces opposition from political leaders across legislatures and parties

Former Sen. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D-N.J.) have all publicly opposed New Jersey-based ICE detention facilities.

Even candidates from both sides of the aisle who ran to represent the state's 10th Congressional District last month vocalized opposition to its reopening, arguing that private entities should not be involved in carrying out the role of the justice system or jails.

In 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) took action to implement relevant immigration policy, barring both public and private centers from entering contracts to detain immigrants. 

But, in 2023, the law was found to be partially unconstitutional due to its impact on federal agents seeking contracts with private companies — a law that has been appealed by New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin.

That same law faces another challenge from GEO Group, who are actively suing Murphy and Platkin to clear the way to contract with ICE. The current case is being overseen by Robert Kirsch, who also decided the 2023 case.

Implications for ICE include increased funding and detention rates

The possible expansion in New Jersey also ties into a larger systemic conversation about funding for ICE. Garcia said ICE sees an increase in funding by billions every passing year due to something known as the "average daily population," or the number of people held by ICE on an annual basis. 

She further explained that the U.S. Congress funds ICE in accordance with their average daily population — a practice ICE exploits by detaining over a set rate to request supplemental funding.

According to a resource from Detention Watch Network, ICE's average daily population was around a little more than 28,000 in 2023. That number has climbed to 37,509 as of July.

Implications for Newark include physical malaises and societal welfare

While reports of a potential re-opening of Delaney Hall date back to April, Garcia said that as of now, ICE is seeking out potential locations and information. Should this contract go through, it would last for 15 years, with significant implications for both individuals and the Newark community as a whole.

When looking at the community collectively, Garcia shared concerns about how the reopening of Delaney Hall could fracture the Newark community and induce a widespread sense of fear for individuals trying to complete their day-to-day tasks.

She also expressed concerns about what conditions inside the building could do to the physical welfare of the community, citing information from the American Civil Liberties Union which purportedly explains how the majority of deaths that occur in ICE detention facilities are preventable, and that many healthy individuals who are detained end up developing mental and physical ailments.

Delaney Hall in particular is situated in an area of the city dubbed "The Chemical Corridor," she said. The area is named for various environmental hazards that affect it, including a nearby sewage facility and a lack of resilience against flooding and major storms. 

Another major fear she expressed was about the misleading arguments ICE and prison companies make regarding the potential benefits of opening these types of detention facilities. While these entities argue that their operations would boost economic growth in any given community, Garcia described their endeavor as "extractive."

"What material benefit (are) ICE and these private prison companies really providing a place like Newark, that needs clean water, that needs a more robust public library system that pays their (workers) well?" she said. "They're extracting so much for their profit and their shareholders at the expense of human beings."

She further explained that the state's economy, across the board, heavily relies on the exploitation of migrant workers. Delaney Hall, in particular, is something she asserts to be "a direct threat" to all members of the community, from friends and family, to neighbors.

Conversations centering the actual basic and social needs of the Newark community through focusing on resources such as the ones provided by the Newark library, appropriate compensation for workers in the space and public transit, are at the core of local organizing, Garcia said.

"I think folks are very socially engaged right now, and they're sort of fed up," she said. "We work so hard to try to sustain our livelihoods and things like that, and then we see that our government is investing in genocide, in prisons and more police enforcement."

The mention of genocide ties into a larger conversation about intersectionality, or understanding that "fights are connected," as Garcia put it. 

As an example, Garcia brought up the killing of Victoria Lee, an Asian woman who was shot dead in Fort Lee by police officers while undergoing a mental health crisis in late July after her brother, who had called for emergency services, explicitly asked for the police not to come.

In Newark, organizers have been working with public educators and religious leaders to connect with their community at a personalized level. These meetings also involve a level of community preparation, with organizers trying to ensure that individuals know what to do if they are detained, Garcia said.

Doing better by the employees of Delaney Hall

Local mobilizing efforts have also included bringing forward the voices of its former employees, Garcia said. Many of them are actively waiting to receive notices of their rehiring, after being fired in January, just to take care of themselves and their families.

At the same time, she has heard stories from detention officers whose jobs take a toll on their mental health, something that is corroborated by other stories in the news.

For her, the work that they do is not sustainable or dignified. She said the lack of dignity, in particular, is indicative of a larger trend driven by the U.S. government, which gives a small segment of individuals attempting to migrate to the States' legal permissions while excluding the majority of others.

"It should be up to Newark and the state to find the people who were formerly employed at Delaney Hall real, dignified work," Garcia said. "I think together, if we have these conversations as a community, we can really think about how we (can) find these people work that doesn't involve working in the immigration center."

Mobilization as a demonstration of intersectionality

As part of her conversation with the Targum, Garcia also shared brief stories of other individuals whose lives have been touched by raids and detention to help understand just how "immigration detention could affect anybody."

One of these included a covert raid in Princeton that drove individuals from all walks of life away from their work, including parents trying to take their children into preschool facilities or those looking for day jobs.

Others included the story of Garcia's cousin, who was moved between six unique facilities during a detention period lasting a little more than two months, and Yanet Candelario, an advocate who manages New York-based immigrant advocacy organization the Mami Chelo Foundation, Inc., who was detained and subject to abuse in Elizabeth for 11 months.

"We have a lot to learn from people who have been formerly detained and people who are currently in ICE detention," she said. "A lot of the work that we are doing outside of the walls of ICE detention needs to really be attributed to people inside ICE detention (who) are brave enough to share their experiences, because ICE is also known to retaliate."

Among those stories is Oscar Bermudes, a truck driver by trade who was detained while attempting to return from Canada. His detention period ran through Father's Day, his son's graduation. Movimiento Cosecha is currently advocating for his permanent protection.

Collectively, Garcia's stories demonstrate how missteps as simple as inconsistent paperwork while returning from business events, following the wrong GPS directions across state lines, or an incorrectly located ICE raid, can result in detention. 

At the same time, Garcia reminds individuals that they still retain the capacity to prevent the reopening of Delaney Hall and to protect Newark as a whole. To do so, Garcia emphasizes the importance of looking at people beyond systemic stereotypes and experience and finding joy in community. 

"At the end of the day, these oppressive systems really do want you to lose your fighting spirit," Garcia said. "So as we present this information, as we get Newark involved in the campaign, we don't want it to be so doomsday. We do want it to be like, 'No, we absolutely do have the power to defend our community and not allow this to reopen.'"

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct Oscar Bermudes' detention period, as a previous version stated he was detained during his wedding. His advocacy network was also updated from a previous mention of the Detention Watch Network advocating for his release.

Includes update to state ICE has been contacted for comment.