Wife of ICE detainee tells of hall conditions
Says Newark facility got tip about officials' visit
By: Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... As members of New Jersey's congressional delegation made a surprise visit to Delaney Hall on May 18, [2026] the wife of a detainee described to the press the horrific conditions that her husband reported are found inside.
.....
New Jersey Representative Rob Menendez made a surprise visit to the Newark immigrant detention center, Delaney Hall on May 18, [2026] a week after he was there on an official visit. Menendez and his New Jersey Democratic colleagues Analilia Mejia and LaMonica McIver walked trough the gates of Delaney Hall without any issue or delay.
..... Meanwhile, Gabriela Soto, the wife of Martin Soto, a 31-year-old undocumented Peruvian man who has been held in the facility since February, [2026] addressed the members of the press who were waiting outside.
..... Soto who is 28 and lives in Kearny, said her husband called her a few hours before the visit to tell her that facility officials were tipped off about the visit and made detainees clean up.
..... "At 6 in the morning, they woke up everyone, and everyone started cleaning," Soto said. She said the detainees were not being paid for the cleanup.
..... Soto the mother of two children and expecting a third child, said her husband - who was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during a traffic stop - told her that the day before the visit, detainees were served spoiled rotten food at dinner.
..... "Yesterday, they had live worms in their food," she said he told her. "The sausages were green, like they had expired. The muffins had pus on them. the milk, you hate to eat the milk. It was chunky. Basically,expired milk."
..... Soto found och about the visit and planed to speak to the Congress members after their visit about the actual conditions inside, not the clean-up, sanitized version that would greet them.
..... "I'm not leaving until I speak to everyone who went in there," Soto said. "I want them to know that what they're seeing in there is not reality."
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The surprise visit by officials came one week after an official one. Last week [05/13/2026] Menendez visited along with fellow New Jersey Representative Nellie Pou.
..... Both visits came in the wake of a letter that detainees at the facility managed, for the second time in three months, to send out, detailing there struggles and frustration. The letter, signed by 288 detainees, alleges widespread issues including medical neglect, arbitrary ICE arrests, public helaht risks, and the devastating effect that detention has on families.
..... The three Congress members did not speak to the media before they entered the facility.
After the visit
..... Menendez, Maejia and McIver adversed the media after they left Delaney Hall.
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McIver said the horrible conditions spelled out in the letter from detainees the week before had to gotten any better.
..... "We just came out of there, and I will tell you that mostly everything that was in that letter was absolutely 100% correct," McIver said."Still the same conditions, but worse. People are still not getting adequate food, and they're not getting adequate medical care. We have a pregnant woman who is in there who is in pain right now who needs medical attention."
..... Menedez confirmed that the facility staff was doing last-minute cleaning up while the congressional contingent was vising with the detainees. he said he and other members of Congress will continue to visit Delaney Hall, and he called out their New Jersey Republican congressional colleagues for not visiting the detention enter.
..... "It's incredibly important that the American people understand what's happening inside there. That's why they don't allow us to bring in cell phones or recording devices, beaus they don't want you to know what's happening inside there," Menendez said.
..... Mejia said that "all of her worst fears" about Delaney Hall were confirmed as she recalled a group of detainees who met with the Congress members.
..... "It is a horror to watch grown men cry and clamor to you for help," Mejia said. "Close to 70 men gathered around to ask us for justice, for dignity, for a little bit of help."