Prisons, Profits, Protests: Controversy Rages Over ICE Detention Center In New Jersey

NEWARK, NJ — They’re not giving up the fight. That was the message from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and a crowd of pro-immigrant advocates as they demonstrated outside a controversial new ICE detention center on Wednesday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced plans to reopen Delaney Hall in Newark earlier this year. The 1,000-bed facility is the first federal detention center to open under President Donald Trump’s second term. It is run by the GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the world. The move allows ICE to expand its detention and deportation capacity in the Northeast region of the country.

ICE started housing detainees at Delaney Hall on May 1. No data was immediately available about how many prisoners are currently at the facility, which formerly held immigration detainees until it closed in 2017 and was turned into a halfway house.

>> Read More: ICE Opens New Immigrant Detention Center In New Jersey – Despite State Ban

The reopening of Delaney Hall has seen pushback from Newark officials, who issued a “stop work” order in late March and have filed a lawsuit against the GEO Group. See Related: Newark Issues 'Stop Work' Order On New ICE Detention Center

The city’s mayor accused ICE of opening the facility “without following proper building safety protocols” and without the necessary construction permits, continued certificates of occupancy and requests to change the building’s use.

“They failed to give city officials access to conduct inspections required under municipal ordinances and state code,” Baraka alleged. “This violates city and state law.”

On Wednesday – for a second-straight day – city officials showed up at Delaney Hall to demand entry into the prison. They were turned away again, Baraka reported.

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The reopening of Delaney Hall has also sparked an outcry from immigrant rights supporters and North Jersey residents, who showed up for another protest outside the prison on Wednesday morning after rallying there the previous day.

“The reopening of Delaney Hall as an ICE detention center – despite clear opposition from the City of Newark – is a blatant act of defiance that endangers our communities and undermines local authority,” agreed Nedia Morsy, Director of Make the Road NJ.

“The GEOGroup has ignored the public will and locked out the officials tasked with keeping people safe,” Morsy alleged. “That alone speaks volumes about what’s happening behind those walls.”

Advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey shared video footage of Wednesday's protest, reporting that “what we're seeing should alarm everyone.”

The march towards reopening Delany Hall has continued despite this opposition, with ICE slamming the city’s legal pushback as “aggressive and legally unjustified.”

The president has insisted that a nationwide crackdown is needed to push back against a “large-scale invasion” of illegal immigration.

“This cannot stand,” Trump said shortly after being inaugurated for his second term. “A nation without borders is not a nation, and the federal government must act with urgency and strength to end the threats posed by an unsecured border.”

Alina Habba, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, accused Baraka of “grandstanding” because he’s running for governor this year during a segment on Fox News.

“The hypocrisy is real here,” Habba said.

“Do you want us to have facilities so that these illegals can have ‘due process’ – even though they have administrative orders that say that they’ve gone through the court system and should be deported,” Habba continued.

“Or do you want us to just put them on a plane and ship them out?” she questioned.

• See Related: U.S. Attorney Launches Investigation Into Top NJ Officials
• See Related: Ineligible Voter Purge Planned In NJ, Trump-Appointed Official Says

MAKING MONEY

Trump’s immigration crackdown will likely create a massive profit for the GEO Group and CoreCivic.

According to the GEO Group, the 15-year, fixed-price contract for Delaney Hall is expected to generate in excess of $60 million in annualized revenues for GEO in the first full year of operations. The company estimated the 15-year value of the contract with normal cost of living adjustments to be approximately $1 billion.

“We are continuing to prepare for what we believe is an unprecedented opportunity to help the federal government meet its expanded immigration enforcement priorities,” GEO Group executive chair George Zoley said.

According to Open Secrets, the GEO Group spent $1.38 million lobbying the federal government in 2024, and CoreCivic spent $1.77 million. Much of their focus was the appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the budget for ICE.

The day after Trump was reelected to his second term, the companies’ stock prices soared: GEO Group’s by about 41 percent and CoreCivic’s by nearly 29 percent.

Nick Schwellenbach, senior investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, told Patch that the GEO Group has positioned itself to “profit handsomely” from Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“In December, they announced they would be investing $70 million to expand their detention capacity and other services, such as transportation, in anticipation of a huge influx in federal spending on ICE,” Schwellenbach said.

“They also hired ICE's top official in charge of detention right before the 2024 election, which gives GEO important insider insights on ICE's needs and will assist the company in winning new contracts and expanding existing deals,” Schwellenbach added.

According to Schwellenbach, there is a reason why the Trump administration is taking an “aggressive approach” towards state officials who are standing in the way of his immigration agenda.

“Key local and state jurisdictions can create roadblocks for an aggressive federal crackdown — including the detention infrastructure needed to facilitate such a crackdown,” Schwellenbach said.

“But GEO Group's close relationship with ICE has helped it deal with potential roadblocks,” he continued. “For example, in 2019, California passed a law banning any new for-profit detention center contracts or contract renewals after January 1, 2020. ICE raced to award GEO Group a new 15-year contract for its Adelanto, California facility about a week and a half before that ban went into effect.”

• See Related: 2 Private Prison Companies With NJ Ties May Score Big Profits From Trump Deportations

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