New Jersey is suing the owners of Delaney Hall, a controversial federal immigration center in Newark.
The state attorney general’s office announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the GEO Group on Tuesday. Their demand? Let state inspectors into the privately run prison.
Detainees say they are facing “inhumane” conditions, such as a lack of medical care, bad food and an unfair court system. They continue to demand their freedom, including the immediate release of elderly, young and pregnant people, as well as those with serious medical conditions.
Federal authorities and prison spokespeople have denied that detainees are being mistreated at Delaney Hall.
The prison 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 was the first federal detention center to reopen under the second term of President Donald Trump.
Its owner, the GEO Group, is one of the largest private prison companies in the nation. The Trump administration has given the company a 15-year, $1 billion contract fueled by taxpayer funds to run Delaney Hall.
>> RELATED: ICE Protests Explode At NJ Prison: What We Know So Far
The prison 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.
According to the attorney general’s office, there have been other recent allegations about poor conditions inside Delaney Hall:
“On May 22, some detainees began a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility, reportedly including spoiled or rotten food and no access to basic hygiene products such as toilet paper, menstruation products, or toothpaste. On May 23, U.S. Senator Andy Kim and Representative Rob Menendez went inside the facility to speak with detainees. Senator Kim met with a pregnant woman who said she is not receiving full obstetrics and gynecological care, and with a woman who had a miscarriage but received no care and was left to manage the miscarriage on her own. Detainees have also told relatives and advocacy groups that the water tasted metallic and undrinkable; that people were being denied medical care or necessary medications; and that diseases such as the flu or COVID-19 were spreading throughout the facility. In addition, in late May, the [department of health] received a report about a detainee taken to University Hospital with tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease.”
The allegations have caught the attention of President Trump, who claimed that the United States runs the “finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type.”
When reached for comment about the allegations at Delaney Hall, a Homeland Security spokesperson recently told Patch that “this is the best health care many aliens have received in their entire lives,” pointing to mandatory assessments for new arrivals, access to “24-hour emergency care” and meals that are “certified by dieticians.”
If that’s true, it’s time to prove it, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said.
New Jersey state health inspectors were allowed inside Delaney Hall for a limited inspection on May 28, but they were barred from inspecting crucial areas of the facility, including the medical unit, sleeping areas and bathing and toileting areas.
Following that visit, state inspectors have not been granted access to conduct a full inspection despite their repeated requests for access.
“If the GEO Group — with a $1 billion government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building,” Sherrill insisted.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said that – by state statute – the New Jersey department of health commissioner is allowed to enter and inspect public and private detention centers. They also have “full access” to any premises if there is any reason to believe a violation may be occurring.
“The reports of unsanitary and unsafe conditions inside Delaney Hall are extremely concerning, and GEO Group — like any other business and facility in New Jersey — must follow the law,” Davenport said.
New Jersey isn’t the only government entity that’s struck out when trying to get inside Delaney Hall. The City of Newark has also had trouble getting inside the prison, its mayor recently said.
“For the past year, the city has been engaged in litigation with the GEO Group due to its failure to comply with municipal ordinances when it began operating Delaney Hall,” Ras Baraka alleged.
“Our concerns remain unresolved, as critical city agencies – including the health department, fire division and code enforcement, have repeatedly been denied access to inspect the facility,” Baraka said.
Patch reached out to the GEO Group seeking comment about the lawsuit from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. We will update this article with any reply we receive.
SMUGGLED PRISON LETTERS
Detainees inside the prison have been chronicling their allegations in a series of letters smuggled out of Delaney Hall. Read their latest plea from inside the prison here.
“It is public knowledge that agents have arrested individuals with physical limitations such as: deaf, mute, blind individuals, elderly persons and even pregnant women,” nearly 300 men and women at the immigration detention facility wrote in a group letter in May.
“We see young people with approved juvenile status cases, with whom we are living in detention centers,” the letter continued. “There is also a high spread of COVID-19 in detention centers, and the flu is constant among detainees, which could lead to outbreaks of illnesses or epidemics.”
Federal authorities have insisted that Delaney Hall is housing some of the “worst of the worst” criminals in New Jersey. “This isn’t the Holiday Inn,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a recent interview.
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.
NJ CONGRESS MEMBERS VISIT DELANEY HALL
U.S. Congress members have the authority to conduct oversight visits at ICE prisons and related facilities. It’s a power that several lawmakers from New Jersey have been exercising – including Democrats and Republicans.
While Garden State Democrats have been bashing conditions at the prison, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew – one of the state’s Republican congressmen – accused his peers of pushing a “political” narrative about what’s happening inside Delaney Hall.
“I toured Delaney Hall today because I wanted to see the facts with my own eyes,” Van Drew said Monday. “What I saw was very different from the political story being pushed by some of my Democrat colleagues.”
According to Van Drew – who chaired Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign in New Jersey – here’s what he saw at Delaney Hall:
“The facility has doctors, nurses, and dentists providing medical care. There is a law library for detainees to study their cases along with a regular library, and large spaces for recreation, including a soccer field and a gym. The food service provides menu options for religious needs, kosher meals, allergies, and other dietary restrictions. I saw good conditions, clean facilities, basic care, and a detention center where ICE and DHS are doing a hard job that keeps our communities safe.”
“Quite frankly, the conditions I saw today are better than what you see in some nursing homes,” Van Drew asserted.
U.S. Sen. Rob Menendez Jr. cast doubt on Van Drew’s assessment, however.
“So Jeff Van Drew – the guy who said drones over New Jersey came from an Iranian mothership to attack our state – is who Republicans picked as their eyes and ears inside Delaney Hall?” he quipped. “Got it.”
Other New Jersey congress members have also been telling a different story about what they encountered at Delaney Hall.
U.S. Sen. Andy Kim – who was exposed to pepper spray while trying to broker a truce between ICE agents and protesters – shared a list of complaints from detainees after he made a visit to the prison on May 23. They included:
“This place needs to shut down,” Kim insisted. “It is not reflective of our constitution, of our laws, of how people, anybody in this country, should be treated.”
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker visited Delaney Hall on May 27. During his oversight visit, Booker said he spoke with dozens of individuals detained at the facility, who described “inadequate access to medical care, substandard food, no ability to visit or communicate with their families and abysmal living conditions.”
“I believe that most Americans, if they saw who is being held and the conditions under which they’re detained, would agree that this facility is a moral stain on our nation,” Booker said. “In fact, the majority of the people I spoke with have no criminal history – no charges, no convictions – related to the kind of violence Donald Trump promised Americans he would target.”
Other elected officials who have recently visited the prison – and called for its closure – have included U.S. Reps. Rob Menendez Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nellie Pou, LaMonica McIver, Analilia Mejia, Frank Pallone Jr. and Josh Gottheimer.
Here’s what some of them have been saying about the conditions inside Delaney Hall:
LaMonica McIver – “In an act of real bravery and obvious desperation, detainees wrote a letter about the conditions that they are facing here at Delaney Hall. Not enough food, no medical care, and conditions they call torture—conditions any of us would recognize as torture. After coming out of the facility, I can tell you that everything in the letter is 100% correct. ICE and DHS will lie and lie because the only thing that they care about is getting caught—which is why we do these unannounced oversight visits.”
Bonnie Watson Coleman – “The hunger and labor strikes at Delaney Hall are in response to inhumane conditions that detainees have been suffering during Trump’s cruel immigration operation– rotten and bug-infested food, a lack of adequate medical care, and a lack of due process and access to their attorneys and families. We’ve been hearing from constituents who have family members inside, including a mother who is being beaten by ICE agents, and an 11-year-old girl who spoke to her father inside, who said that there are a lot of people inside who are bloodied. Ambulances have been seen entering and leaving the facility.”
Analilia Mejia – “I just visited Delaney Hall, and my worst fears are confirmed … I may never forget the faces of those detainees begging for help.”
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