Outrage Continues Over Hudson County Renewing ICE Contract

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — After a 10-hour meeting on Monday night, the Hudson County Board of Freeholders renewed a contract with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to continue overseeing detained immigrants within the county's correctional facility. Advocates for immigrants and other observers have been outraged at the decision.

Over the years, the holding of immigrants at the Hudson County Correctional Facility has been controversial, with poor conditions and deaths reported. Two years ago, six deaths were reported in a one-year period.

On Monday night, advocates spoke against the 10-year contract renewal during the virtual meeting of the Board of Chosen Freeholders. The freeholders are nine elected representatives who oversee the budget, contracts, and facilities for Hudson County.

One freeholder said that while county officials had pledged to end the contract in the past, he has seen improvements.

This past Tuesday night, after the vote, those opposing the contract held a protest outside a Hoboken diner where a political fundraiser was being held. At least one protestor said that she has since filed assault charges against a county freeholder. A video of a confrontation can be found on Twitter.

A protestor who filed charges Tweeted in a detailed thread on Wednesday: "I used every 'proper' channel I could think of. I engaged electeds on both sides of the Hudson. I've written letters, signed petitions, asked for meetings, testified at hearings. In all this engagement I, and too many others, were ignored."

She added, "All the while, COVID-19 disproportionately killed Black, Brown, & immigrant communities who were frontline essential workforce. Yet ICE workplace raids, like this, still happened. And detained where? HUDSON."

She detailed how the fight finally wound up with a protest in front of the diner and this video.

A week before the vote, on Nov. 23, five of Jersey City's nine council members released a statement: "We believe that Hudson County should honor their 2018 commitment to exit the contract with ICE. As representatives in the nation’s most diverse city, we must do all in our power to end ICE’s system of immigrant detention that has led to so many abuses. Our county representatives made a promise to exit this contract by the end of 2020, and we expect them to live by their word.”

What do you think? Comment below.

• Read more: Immigrant Rights Group: Hudson County Jail Deaths Are 'Systemic'
• Read more: Maggots, Squalor For ICE Detainees At 'Inhumane' NJ Jails
• Read more: Hudson County Won't Help ICE Flag Jailed Immigrants Under 287(G)

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