Kim seeks closure of Newark ICE center

Sherrill tired to visit, says officials denied her entry

By: Ashley Balcerzak
and Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... New Jersey's junior senator and a local congressman described inadequate medial care, poor food and "inhumane treatment" at Delaney Hall, the federal immigration detention center in Newark, after speaking to detainees on Day 2 of a hunger strick. They renewed their calls to shut down facility.
..... U.S. Senator Andy Kim and Representative Rob Menendez Jr., they spoke to what Kim said were dozens, if not 100 or more," detainees on the evening of Saturday May 23 [2026] one day after hundred of people held in the center said they would refuse food and work until their demands are met.
..... Governor Mikie Sherrill, who was joined by Kim, Menendez and U.S. Representatives Nellie Pou, Analilia Majia and LaMonica McIver, tried to visit the Newark facility on Monday May 25. [2026]
..... Sherrill said Immigration and Customs enforcement official would not allow her to enter Delaney Hall.
..... In a video Kim posted to X form outside Delaney Hall in the rain on Saturday, [05/23/2026] he said of the detainees, "Often they were talking about the poor food that they're getting, really disgusting food, that they're not getting the medical treatment that they need and deserve."
..... The senator added, "I talked with a pregnant woman who was not getting the care that she needed. I talked with an 18-year-old high school senior who should be at a school, not in this facility there. this place needs a shutdown, and be back with their families."
..... ICE did not respond to multiple request for comment about the alleged conditions or treatment of detainees on Saturday [05/23/2026] or Sunday. [05/24/2026] GEO Group, the private company hat operates the facility, referred NorthJersey.com to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
..... In a Sunday [05/24/2026] telephone interview with NorthJersey.com , Kim expanded on the stories he heard, many translated by the 18-year-old, who he said desperately wanted to graduate. Kim said he spoke with a woman with a 4-month-old baby who said she was not allowed to pump break milk and was permitted to see her infant only once or twice.
..... Another woman, according to the senator, said she had a miscarriage in Delaney Hall, did not get the medial attention she needed and was ridiculed by the staff, who said she had probably made up the story. Detainees with no connection to Africa were told they would be deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the midst of its Ebola outbreak, Kim was told.
..... The Record and NorthJersey.com could not independently verify the allegations as of Sunday [05/24/2026] afternoon.

What detainees are saying

..... The detainees have called for the release of individuals who are elderly, young, seriously ill or injured. they also have called for Sherrill to visit the detention center to discuss protections to keep immigration communities safe while opening an investigation into the facility.
..... Outside Delaney Hall on Saturday, [05/23/2026] community organizers concluded an overnight vigil to show solidarity with those inside.
..... "They are in high spirits," said Catalina Adorno, an organizer with the advocacy group Movimiento Cosecha. "They are holding strong right now. They want to make suer people know their strike is peaceful. They just want to get attention form the governor. They want to speak to her."
..... The strike follows complaints from detainees alleging medical neglect, lack of air conditioning, lack of food, and rotten and spoiled meals.
..... On Saturday, [05/23/2026] immigrant organizers alleged that a few detainees involved in the strike were targeted for retaliation. One was threated with solitary confinement, and at least two others had visit time cut to just 4 or 10 minutes, the organizes said.
..... Delaney Hall opened on MAy1, 2025, as a 1,000-bed private immigration detention center, as part of the Trump administration's aggressive push to expand detention capacity.
..... In response to the complaints, lawmakers have been conducting oversight visits to assess the alleged conditions.
..... "You have fathers, you have grandfathers, you have mothers, you have grandmothers - that is who ICE is holding in he Delaney hall right now," Menendez said in another video recorded outside the facility and posted Online. "and the clear message was. 'Why are we here? Why are we here? why is it acceptable to Americans that these are our neighbors that are being held in there?' That's the message that we hear. that is the message we're going to come deliver."
..... Menendez said what he was hearing from ICE and GEO Group officials conflicted with what he has seen during his recent visits to Delaney Hall.
..... "They keep telling us everyone gets seen within 24 hours of putting in a medical request,' Menendez said during a separate phone interview Sunday. [05/24/2026] "Everyone inside is telling us something very different, and when you see these people, you see how sick they look. there's people coughing and people that just look physically unwell. There are people who have been waiting weeks and months for medical attention, and they're not getting it."

Kim calls ICE response 'absurd'

..... In the interview, Kim said one family told him a detainees relieve has been at a hospital for more than 10 days, but ICE would not reveal to them which hospital it is and what her medical problems is, for "security reasons."
..... After he raised concerns with ICE, Kim said, officials told him that families could submit a Freedom of Information Act request for a relative's medical records, a process hat can take months to years for a response.
..... "The face that they they just said that to me, like, point blank, without any recognition of how abuse what they're telling me is," Kim said. "they just fall back on the process, the procedures that are supposed to be there, without actually telling me if it's actually happening."
..... In addition to the conditions in the facility, Kim said, detainees hoped to shine a light on a "judicial process [that] is clearly not fair, clearly not in line with our constitution, our rule of law."
..... "They showed me a piece of paper. This judge has 74 cases in front of her in one day," the senator said. "How are they to feel like they're going to have someone actually listen to their circumstance and take them seriously? It makes you really wonder: What is the dynamic there? I was doing the math - that's about six minutes per case."
..... In the video he posted to X, Kim added, "they are not even being given the time in court. If this administration is so convinced that these are people that are dangerous, give them time in court. I mean, this is a farce of a situation, It is not reflective of our Constitution, of our laws, of how people, anybody in this country, should be treated."

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