Detainees in Newark facility may be relocated
Some detainees escaped during riot at the facility
By: Kyle Morel
and Nicholas Katzban
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Law enforcement officials are looking to relocate detainees being held at a Newark immigration facility following a riot that resulted in several of them escaping from the center, sources told NorthJersey.com .
.....
Employees of local correctional departments have heard as many as nine detainees may have gotten out during the June 12 [2025] fracas at Delaney Hall, said Jim Troisi, vice president of the union representing supervisors at Essex County Jail. Some escapees remain at large, although the exact number are a matter of debate.
..... Representatives from multiple agencies are now reportedly seeking another location to house the detainees, as the county jail does not have the capacity to accept evacuated detainees, according to Trioisi's sources.
.....
Authorities could not provide confirmation on where the detainees will be sent. Troisi said he is hearing that the federal government is relocating detainees to the Philadelphia a4ra and then moving on to southern states.
..... Officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or IE, could not immediately be reached for comment on why Delaney Hall was deemed unstable to house detainees following the June 12 [2025] incident and how long it would be until detainees would be returned to the private facility.
..... The riot stemmed from detainee protests over insufficient food and other poor conditions, according to immigration rights groups.
..... The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, the state's largest immigration coalition, said in a post on X that detainees inside Delaney Hall wee not reeving meals between 6 AM. and 10 PM. for days. The group also reported that pipes in the facility sprayed boiling water, while loved ones of those inside were denied visitation.
.....
Sources inside the hall indicated that 50 inmates helped push down the wall of a unit after meals were delivered late. Senator Andy Kim, in a briefing posted to Instagram by the advocacy group Cosecha New Jersey, confirmed earlier reports that four detainees had escaped the facility through an exterior wall.
..... Kim said he and Representativeness Bob Menendez learned through conversations with facility administrators and ICE officlas that the area where the group escaped was "essentially just drywall iwht some mesh inside," leading to the outer wall.
..... "It shows just how shoddy of construction was here, what happens when we are paying for billions of dollars of for-profit prisons that are skirting th e responsibilities that they have and try to pocket as much of that money as possible," the senator said in the video. "What we're seeing here is a lot of situations of the irresponsibility of what is happening here and why it is that we don't want to see this facility here."
..... One detective at the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said he was unaware of the emergency unfolding at the detention center until he saw it on the news.
.....
"They didn't let the prosecutor's office know at all. It wasn't in a morning meeting," Detective Anthony DeProspo said :they' didn't send out memos, emails. Nothing."
..... Delaney Hall, opened in May, [2025] is the first immigration detention center established during the second term of President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport at least 111 million undocumented immigrants. In February, [2025] ICE awarded GEO Group a contract to hold migrants facing deportation at the facility, which holds 1,196 beds.
..... GEO Group is a private prison company that holds multiple contracts with ICE. GEO's deal with the federal agency is projected to be worth $1 billion over the 15-year life of the contract.