Hudson County Purge Of ICE Contract Not Over Yet, Activists Warn

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — Hudson County activists are keeping the pressure on the Board of Freeholders as its members gather for a Thursday evening meeting and possible vote on the county’s controversial contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

According to the freeholders’ meeting agenda for Thursday, Oct. 11, board members will discuss a resolution about the county’s contract with ICE to hold federal detainees facing deportation.

ICE currently pays Hudson County $110 per bed/day to house an estimated 800 federal detainees at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny. Many of those prisoners are from the state of New York, as well as the North Jersey area.

According to the ACLU of New Jersey, Hudson County has been taking money from the federal government to hold immigrant detainees for 15 years… longer than ICE has existed as an agency.

Last month – after years of steadfast protest from local activists and families of prisoners – Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise announced that the county would initiate a “Path to Exit” from its relationship with ICE.

• See related article: Hudson County Plans To Sever Ties With ICE After Public Outcry

However, hours before the board’s Thursday meeting, multiple human rights activist groups said that the fight is far from over.

The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ) released the following statement:

“The Hudson County Freeholders continue to play politics with the lives of immigrant detainees and their families. Public statements have been made, yet what is before the freeholder board today is not what they committed to. The proposed resolution on the Intergovernmental Service Agreement maintains the status quo of their relationship with ICE until 2020, at which point they are free to continue that relationship with another resolution.”

According to the NJAIJ, the resolution up for debate on Thursday “does not propose an end date, does not impose a cap on the number of detainees, comply with latest detention standards to better the treatment of detainees and inmates, and does not add resources to ensure that our families gain freedom.”

The group concluded:

“All the Hudson County Freeholder actions indicate that they are simply hoping this pressure dies down. They are hoping that in two years this won’t be an issue anymore and that they can go back to previous excuses for partaking in this inhumane system. As Hudson County is one of the most diverse counties not just in New Jersey, but in the country, these actions do not reflect the values of Hudson County’s residents. Today’s resolution should be tabled until the freeholders can lay out clear steps to phase out the contract and meaningfully engage with impacted community members and the advocates who support them.”

The Resist the Deportation Machine Network, a coalition of immigrant, labor and civil rights groups from across New Jersey, also issued a stern warning on Thursday: “The board’s proposal to continue the contract to the end of 2020, which still could be renewed by another vote of the Freeholders, is not acceptable.”

“It’s time Hudson County stopped taking Donald Trump’s blood money and end the cruel and unjust imprisonment of our immigrant brothers and sisters,” said Jay Arena of the Jobs and Equal Rights for All campaign, a RDM affiliate.

Resist the Deportation Machine activist Eric Lerner said that the county’s proposed Correctional Advisory Board and promise to end the contract at the end of 2020 is “an attempt to demobilize our movement.”

“We will not let up until this contract is immediately and permanently ended,” Lerner said.

• See related article: 7 Hudson County Clergy Sue Freeholders Over ICE Contract

Human rights activists have been decrying allegedly "inhumane" conditions at Hudson County Correctional Facility for years, including suicide risks, spoiled food and medical care done on a “cost-benefit analysis.”

• See related article: Maggots, Squalor For ICE Detainees At 'Inhumane' NJ Jails
• See related article: Dozens Protest At Hudson County Jail After Immigrant Dies (PHOTOS)

The alleged issues at the jail were further highlighted when Pablo Villavicencio, a delivery driver and family man, was arrested after he delivered a pizza to the Fort Hamilton military base on General Lee Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

A guard called ICE after Villavincencio used a municipal ID card to gain entry to the base, which prompted the guard to quiz the husband and father of two daughters about his immigration status. Immigration agents arrived and took Villavincencio — an Ecuadorian native married to a U.S. citizen — to the Hudson County Correctional Facility.

• See related article: Video Shows Emotional Reunion For Pizza Driver After ICE Arrest

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Photo: (protest at Hudson County Jail in June 2017): Jawaid Stationwala