ICE Is Illegally Using NJ Warehouse As Detention Facility, Advocates Say

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — After weeks of speculation that ICE has been quietly using a Morris County warehouse as a detention facility, going against a court mandate, an advocacy group says it has evidence of the illegal activity.

In September, rumors that ICE had been holding immigrants in a warehouse it had purchased earlier this year began circulating. The federal agency was ordered by the U.S. District Court not to detain any immigrants at the site, allowing only maintenance and security activity there.

The reports were deemed credible enough to spark an investigation from the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, which is ongoing.

"If ICE tries to convert the Roxbury warehouse site into a detention facility, it would violate a court order," a NJOAG spokesperson told Patch. "We are carefully reviewing reports of ICE activity at the warehouse and will take all necessary steps to address any non-compliance with a court order."

Related: ICE May Be Illegally Using NJ Warehouse For Operations, AG Says

Now, Project No ICE in North Jersey Alliance (NINJA), a group of organizations resisting the warehouse conversion, says it has submitted evidence to the AG's office that ICE is violating the court order.

According to NINJA, the relative of a man arrested by ICE in a Dover raid on Sept. 4 received a same-day phone call from him saying he was in a “jail or prison” at a time when the vehicle used to transport him was seen entering and exiting the warehouse property. The man was transferred to the ICE facility in Elizabeth later that day, NINJA adds.

“We are not shocked that recent reports confirm what we've observed for the past several months or that DHS once again shows a complete disregard of the law. We know that ICE is a terrifying force, kidnapping members of our communities, and
separating families in the process," NINJA says. "We are demanding immediate action in the form of oversight visits by our Congressional representatives and a full investigation by the NJ Attorney General and the Township of Roxbury of this blatant violation.”

In a recent NPR article, Harvard professor Andrew Mergen, a former attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Environment & Natural Resources Division, said ICE "may technically not be violating the court order, which stipulated it would not convert the place into a detention center pending an environmental assessment."

However, Project NINJA's legal counsel, David Broderick, says the consent order is still being violated, even if no physical conversions have been made to the warehouse.

"In effect, ICE is using the Roxbury Warehouse as a de facto detention and transfer facility in order to facilitate its raids in the Northern NJ area," Broderick told the AG's office. "Although, to our knowledge, this usage has not involved any physical alterations to the Roxbury Warehouse, it is nonetheless a violation of both the wording and the spirit of the Consent Order.

"Although ICE may not, to our knowledge, be engaged in any physical disturbance of the Roxbury Warehouse in order to convert it into the type of long-term, multi-bed detention facility that it had originally indicated that it intended to convert it into, it is unmistakably currently utilizing it as a 'detention facility,'" he continued.

Project NINJA is calling on New Jersey officials to investigate and tour the facility. It is also urging residents to write a letter of their own to the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. More than 7,200 letters have already been written.

Previous Coverage:

• ICE Prison In North Jersey Is Officially Nixed, Feds Say
• ICE May Be Illegally Using NJ Warehouse For Operations, AG Says
• Morris Co. ICE Jail May Be Back On The Table: See Details
• DHS Won't "Back Down" On New NJ ICE Jail Despite Legal Filing: Feds
• New ICE Jail Construction In NJ Has Been Stopped, Sherrill Says
• New Bill Would Stop DHS From Converting NJ Warehouses To ICE Facilities On Taxpayers' Dime
• Protesters Take To The Streets Over Proposed ICE Facility In Morris Co.
• ICE Tries To Deport 300K Immigrants From NJ. Only 7 Percent Have A Criminal History