ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is criticizing a new policy in Essex County involving ICE, but supporters are leaping to its defense.
Earlier this year, the Essex County Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed an “ICE Out of Essex County” resolution. It was officially implemented on July 9.
The new rules prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) from operating on non-public areas of Essex County properties without a judicial warrant or court order. They also prohibit using county resources to assist with civil immigration enforcement.
>> RELATED: ‘ICE Out Of Essex County’ Legislation Gets A Green Light
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement that criticizes the county’s new rules.
According to federal spokespeople, the resolution will impair ICE’s ability to transfer detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, the largest county-run prison in the state.
“It also requires us to have a larger presence to arrest criminals at large instead of in the controlled setting of a jail,” acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis said.
“When sanctuary politicians refuse to cooperate with ICE law enforcement, they put the safety of the public and our officers at risk,” Bis insisted. “Sanctuary policies like this make New Jersey communities less safe.”
Two county commissioners who voted in favor of the resolution disagreed with this week’s statement from federal authorities.
“We are here to help all residents, and the brutal ICE activities we have seen the past year and a half push law-abiding immigrants away from community participation, robbing us of all the ways they enrich our culture and society,” Commissioner President Carlos Pomares told NJ Advance Media.
Meanwhile, Brendan Gill argued that it’s also about being good stewards of taxpayer money.
“It is fiscally responsible – the taxpayer money that funds county law enforcement should be spent protecting and serving county residents, not subsidizing the massive federal ICE budget, which dwarfs the entire Essex County budget,” Gill said.
SANCTUARY CITIES
Labeling local anti-ICE regulations as “sanctuary” policies has been a tactic that the Trump administration has used to attack similar measures in New Jersey.
Last year, the U.S. Justice Department sued four New Jersey cities – Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark and Paterson – in an attempt to strike down their sanctuary city policies.
However, a U.S. District judge recently ruled that the Trump administration doesn’t have the legal footing to carry out its threats. The judge pointed to New Jersey’s existing Immigrant Trust Directive, which is nearly identical to the sanctuary policies in Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark and Paterson – and has been successfully defended in court multiple times.
Other towns and cities in Essex County have rolled out their own local regulations over the past year, including Bloomfield, which got a visit from ICE agents in June.
The agents were advised of the town’s policy and left the property without delay, the town’s mayor said.
ICE AND ESSEX COUNTY
The Essex County Correctional Facility was previously paid to house ICE detainees until the county ended its controversial, multi-million-dollar contract with the federal government in 2021.
These days, federal immigration detainees are being held at another nearby prison in Newark – Delaney Hall – the first federal detention center to reopen under the second term of President Donald Trump.
The facility is owned and operated by the GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the nation.
Delaney Hall formerly held immigration detainees for the federal government from 2011 to 2017 under the Obama administration, until it closed and was turned into a halfway house. It has seen a wave of controversy since it began holding ICE detainees again, including allegations of poor treatment, federal charges against the city’s mayor and a U.S. congresswoman, a high-profile prison escape, and a detainee who died in federal custody. Hundreds of detainees recently launched a hunger and labor strike at the prison, claiming that they are facing “inhumane” conditions, such as a lack of medical care, bad food and an unfair court system.
Federal authorities and prison spokespeople have denied the allegations of mistreatment. The accusations have also caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who claimed that the United States runs the “finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type.”
Homeland Security officials, including Secretary Markwayne Mullin, have insisted that Delaney Hall is housing some of the “worst of the worst” criminals in New Jersey.
Advocates and family members of ICE detainees have pushed back against the claim that most of the immigrants imprisoned at facilities like Delaney Hall are “criminals,” however.
In April, data research organization Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reported that out of 60,311 people held in ICE detention across the nation, about 70.8 percent had no criminal conviction before being apprehended – and many of those who do were convicted only of minor offenses such as traffic violations.
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