Bergen County Votes To End ICE Contract At County Jail

HACKENSACK, NJ — The Bergen County Board of Commissioners have unanimously voted to end a contract with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which paid the county to house ICE detainees at the county jail in Hackensack.

First reported by NorthJersey.com, the board unanimously approved the measure, meaning that the agency has 45 days to move the detainees from the jail, according to the Bergen County Sheriff's Office.

Public Information Officer Keisha McLean told Patch on Thursday that the jail is currently holding 23 male detainees and one female detainee. As for what will happen to them now, McLean said it isn't up to the jail or Sheriff's Office.

"ICE will continue to determine the whereabouts of the detainees in their custody after their removal," said McLean.

According to the board's agenda, they have executed a new contract with the U.S. Marshall's Service. This allows the government to send inmates awaiting trial or transfer, NorthJersey reports.

Contracts between county jails and ICE have been subject to protests from residents, and hunger strikes from detainees over the course of the last year, including in Bergen County, where days of protests eventually led to a clash and arrests between protesters and law enforcement.

Read more: PHOTOS: Protests, Hunger Strike Continue At Bergen County Jail

Read more: VIDEO: Protesters, Police Clash Again At Bergen County Jail

Bergen County is the last of three in New Jersey with ICE contracts to announce an end to them, following Essex and Hudson Counties, who made the decision earlier this year. However, the agency did extend a contract with the company that runs the Elizabeth Contract Detention Center, CoreCivic.

Officials in Essex County announced the move in April 2021, and by August, all detainees had been moved out of Essex County jails. In Hudson County, officials said there would be no more detainees in local jails as of November 2021 according to Documented NY, a Patch news partner.

New Jersey is now also among a handful of states to ban prisons from making deals with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold federal immigration detainees, after Gov. Phil Murphy signed bills A-5207/S-3361 into law in August.

The law didn't terminate existing contracts with ICE, but decisions by the three New Jersey counties have fallen in line with the state's message.

Advocates and attorneys released a joint statement through the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project on Thursday praising the move, and also urging ICE to release the remaining detainees at the jail.

"For years, the people we represent who have been incarcerated at Bergen County Jail reported deplorable and inhumane conditions, from solitary confinement, inadequate medical treatment, and lack of basic sanitation to freezing temperatures and the dangers of COVID-19," they said.

"ICE put many, many lives at risk by jailing people at Bergen simply because of where they were born. ICE enforcement and detention tears families apart, inflicts lifelong trauma, deprives people of basic human rights and needs, and it kills. We welcome Bergen County’s exit from its contract with ICE, thus ending all of New Jersey local governments’ contracts with the agency and representing another important step in ending ICE detention nationwide."

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