6 events in Passaic County with a date

Newark building may house detainees

By: Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... A pending lawsuit whose outcome could allow a detention center to open in Newark to house ICE detainees has immigrant support groups concerned about the center's management company's track record of preventable detainee deaths and inhumane conditions - and its potential to profit from the mass deportation plan that President Donald Trump has set in motion.
..... Delaney Hall, a detention center surrounded by truck stops and warehouses in an industrial area across from the Essex County correctional Facility on the outskirts of Newark, once held immigrant detainees - and may soon do so again.
..... The GEO Group, which owns Delaney Hall, last year [2024] used Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matthew Platkin seeking to stop enforcement of a law passed in 2021 by the state Legislature that prohibits jails from entering into new contracts to house federal immigration detainees. Federal Distinct Judge Robert Kirsch upheld an April 2023 ruling sought by another prison company, CoreCivic, against the state ban, which would have closed the Elizabeth Detention center in Elizabeth. It remains open.
..... The American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in September [2024] that showed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was looking to expand its mitigation detention capacity across New Jersey.
..... "New Jersey is a state of immigrants, and we must do everything in our power to ensure we stop this facility form opening to pretext the more than 2 million immigrants and millions of children with immigrant parents," said Edia Morsey, deputy director of the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey.
..... NorthJersey.com contacted the two attorney representing The GEO Group in the lawsuit, Geoffrey Bruounell and Scott Schipma, and The GEO Group's media relations for comment on the lawsuit and about the current status of Delaney Hall.
..... Christopher Ferreia, director of the GEO Group's corporate relations, responded by email and referred the matter to Immigration and customs Enforcement for comment. NorthJersey.com contacted nine representatives at ICE for comment by email but did not receive a response.

Prison company upgrading detention center in Newark

..... According to the lawsuit, the prison company, the second-largest in the country, after CoreCivic, has spent $5 million on upgrades to Delaney Hall, which holds 1,196 beds, and from 2011 to 2017 in contracted with ICE to house up to 450 immigration detainees.
..... This effort to make over the facility has critics worried htat it may reopen for business early this year [2025] to coincide with the return to the White House of Trump, who threatened the mass deportation of 11 million people,some of whom could end up being held at Delaney Hall.
..... Since his inauguration on January 20, [2025] ICE agents have carried out raids across the country as part of Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, leading to the arrest of 956 people. However, the raid have provoked controversy and outrage, including over one Thursday [01/23/2025] at the Ocean Seafood Depot in Newark, about three miles from Delancy Hall, when the U.S. military veteran was one f the people arrested even after showing his military ID.
..... Also, Congress last week [01/23/2025] passed the Laken Riley Act, which gives mitigation officers the right to detain undocumented immigrants in the U.S. if they have admitted or are suspected, arrested or charged in criminal offenses resulting in death or bodily injury. they also could be detained and deported without first being convicted. That will result in more people being placed in detention centers.
..... The GEO Group, in the suit filed last April [2024] in U.S. District Court in Trenton, said the 2021 New Jersey law "prohibits ICE form entering into contracts with private service contractors - like GEO - for the detention of individuals by the federal government."
.... Critics point to a November [2024] filing by The GEO Group will she securities and exchange commission. In the filing, the company said it responded to ICE's procurement for a facility with a minimum of 600 beds in the Newark area, "which is expected to result in a 15-eyar contract to be awarded by the end of December." [2024]
..... The GEO Group reported in its 2023 annual report that 43% of tis revenues came from U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement contracts.

Detention lawsuit redux

..... The GEO Group wants to reopen the facility,the sit says, because in May 2023, the U.S. department of Homeland Security released a request for information "house non-citizen and immigration violators in support of its public safety mission: under federal law.
..... The site "will be located within a 50-Newark Field Office and would be capable of providing 500 to 600 beds." ICE received four responses to the request, with The GEO Group chosen.
..... The GEO Group says in the suit that if the state law, known as AB-5207, "eliminates GEO's ability to offer the Delaney hall Facility to meet the detention requirements in the Acquisition Planning Forecast, GEO would lose the opportunity to obtain a contract with an estimated value of over $100 million."
..... The New Jersey Attorney General's Office said in a statement that it disagrees strongly with lifting the New Jersey restrictions on private detention, and has appealed the CoreCivic decision.
..... "Private detention facilities threaten the public health and safety of New Jerseyans, including when sued for immigration purposes," a spokesperson said in the statement. "while the district court's acknowledged that we cannot enforce that state-law provision against any private detention facility. But we await oral argument on our full briefed appeal, and we hope to overturn the injunction."
..... The GEO Group acknowledges in its lawsuit it is seeking the same legal outcome as CoreCivic. Kirsch is also the judge presiding over this case.

Immigrant advocates oppose reopening detention centers

..... Various concern about the reopening of Delaney Hall
..... Morsey, the deputy director of Make the Road New Jersey, said in a vestment to NorthJersey.com earlier this month: [01/2025] "GEO Group has a horrific track record of preventable detainee deaths, stealing inmate wages, and inhumane conditions. They stand to profit form trump's plans for mass deportation and the pain of family separation."
..... The Guardian reported taht 60 detainees at immigration processing center in California operated by The GEO Group launched a hunger strike last summer [2024] in protest of substandard, condition including food poisoning and unavailability of water for up to 12 hours.
..... New Jersey representatives for Washington, D. C.-based Detention Watch Network, with several other New Jersey immigrate advocacy groups, protested in front of Delaney Hall by holding a posada there on International Migrants Day. :as Posadas - "posada" is Spanish for "inn" or :lodging" - is Mexican religious festival that takes place over the nine days before Christmas and reenacts the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
..... Detention watch network referred NorthJersey.com to a brocjure it created to from the public about opposing detention center in New Jersey, where, it notes. "It is possible that the reopening of Delaney hall will result in increased presence and detentions by ICE in our community."
..... Other advocates, such as Molly Linhorst, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, are concerned about the center's location in a heavily industrialized area, which could expose detainees to pollution, and that the company is engaging in detainment for profit.
..... "The very structure of a private company making money off the backs of people who are in detention, where it be civil or criminal, is extremely concerning," Linhorst said.

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