ICE uses Delaney Hall, despite suits
Newark officials were at the site but were denied admission
By: Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Delaney Hall, the Newark prison that the Trump administration has said it wants to turn into an immigrant detention center, has reopened and is holding detainees, despite a pending suit about compliance with permits, certificate of occupancy and inspection.
.....
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on May 5 [2025] slammed the owner of the prison, The GEO Group, saying at a news conference at Newark City Hall that it had put detainees in the facility in recent days, despite the city's suit saying the company has failed to file required permits for construction and continued occupancy and has not allowed inspectors into the facility.
..... "They are following the pattern of the president of the United States, who believes that he can just do what he wants to do and obscure the laws - national and constitutional laws- and they think they can do the same thing in the state of New Jersey and in Newark," Baraka said.
..... He said city officials were at the site Monday [05/05/2025] morning to verify that there were detainees in Delaney Hall, based on information gather from an employee at the facility.
..... He also said officials were not being allowed inside.
..... GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said Delaney Hall has a valid certificate of occupancy issued by Newark and complies with helaht and safety requirements, and that the attempt by the mayor's office to stop the facility from opening was a political campaign to keep the federal government from arresting, detaining an deporting criminal immigrants.
..... In February, [2025] Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it had reached a 15-eyar agreement with The GEO Group to make the 1,196-bed Delaney Hall the first detention center to open during Trump's second term, during which the president has vowed to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants.
..... ICE spokesperson Christine Cuttitta confirmed in a statement to
NorthJersey.com that detainees have been brought to the facility, saying, "On February 26, [2025] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered into a contract with the Geo Group to provide detention beds at Delaney Hall with an effective date of March 1, 2025. ICE began housing detainees May 1." [2025]
.....
The city filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Essex County this month [05/2025] ordering The GEO Group to "cease occupancy [and] construction, and permit entry entry for inspection" of Delaney Hall, which in on Doremus Avenue in an industrial area on the outskirts of Newark. the building had been vacant since2023when it served as a drug treatment center and halfway house. Delaney Hall from 2011 to 2017 housed immigration detainees.
..... The case was moved to federal court in Newark by the Florida-based GEO Group, saying the city's complaint was "based solely on CEO's performance of its federal contract with ICE." The prison company is also seeking to get Newark's lawsuit dismissed, if ICE is included, due to the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity, which protects a government from being sued unless it waives that immunity.
...,, Ferreira, the GEO spokesperson, said in a statement: "This attempt by the Mayor's Office to stop the operation of a lawful feral immigration processing center at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark is another unfortunate example of a politicized campaign by sanctuary city and open borders politicians in New Jersey to interfere with the federal government's efforts to arrest, detain, and deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens in accordance with established federal law.
..... "Delaney Hall's reactivations as a federal immigration processing center has cerated hundreds of unionized jobs, with an average annual salary of $105,000, and is expect3ed to contribute $50 million to the local Newark economy. The politicized actions of local and state officials put these benefits, as well as the safety of the community, in jeopardy; and are a disservice to their constituents who live in the local community and work at the facility."
..... Ferreira declined to answer questions about matters including when immigrant detainees were brought into Delaney hall, whether the official date was May 1, [2025] why GEO was reopening when there's a lawsuit pending, and how many people are currently detained at the facility.