Since June, immigrant rights advocates have been fighting the opening of a new immigration detention center in New Jersey, which the advocates expect to open next year. With a capacity to hold up to 600 people — more than double the number of beds the current facility in the state already has — advocates worry that the facility will result in an uptick in targeting and racial profiling of communities of color based on what they look like, the language they speak, and where they work.
ICE wrapped up the final step to approve this facility with a Request for Proposal this summer that sought bids from contractors for detention facility support. Now advocates are waiting for the contract to be announced. Advocates believe the new facility will be located in a previously closed detention facility in Newark named Delaney Hall, which has been undergoing renovations.
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“It’s going to be a big facility, an important facility, because they are going to be targeting a lot of our communities in the northeast that are heavily immigrant-populated that have a lot of sanctuary policies in place,” said Gabriela Viera, senior advocacy manager at the Detention Watch Network. “They want to punish these communities and intend to target them.”
Viera and advocates also say that the expansion of ICE facilities is in deep contrast with New Jersey’s values, where immigrants are welcomed and valued, as indicated by legislation and organizing. In the past, advocates in New Jersey had organized to successfully close three public immigration detention centers and pass legislation that banned all public and private contracts for immigration detention in the state.
“I think people in New Jersey made it really clear that we don’t want immigration detention here,” said Katy Sastre, interim executive director of First Friends of New Jersey and New York, which offers advocacy, post-release support and volunteer visitations for people in immigrant detention. “It’s incredibly inhumane, it’s cruel, and that cruelty is built into the system, it’s not an exception.”
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When the “Dignity Not Detention” Act passed in 2021, the existing Elizabeth Detention Center, run by a private company named Core Civic, initiated a lawsuit that extended the company’s contract with ICE. Core Civic sued the state to be able to do so, and the Biden administration supported the private company in the original decision and in the appeal that was then later filed by the state of New Jersey.
“There’s been a long-standing fight to get rid of immigration detention altogether, so it’s incredibly disappointing that the Biden administration essentially doubled down, made the promise to end private detention, then supported Core Civic in their lawsuit against New Jersey twice, and now we have this threat of expansion,” Sastre said.
Sastre and Viera said that ICE is likely targeting New Jersey because of their proximity to two large international airports which would allow ICE to quickly get people on a plane and deport them.
New Jersey isn’t the only state ICE is looking to expand in. The agency is also exploring the possibility of new facilities in 15 states, as indicated by two documents seeking proposals earlier this year. These states include California, Arizona, Illinois and others. Immigrant justice advocates say the current system is rife with alarming abuses and poor and deteriorating conditions. GEO Group, which is expected to contract with ICE for the Delaney Facility, has been the subject of multiple lawsuits for violations of their own standards.
In 2021, detention levels were at an all time low. Viera said that this presented an “opportunity for the government to say that we are no longer going to use a system of mass detention to unnecessarily and cruelly detain immigrants while they’re trying to navigate their cases.” Instead, the immigration detention population doubled under the Biden-Harris administration.
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With a Trump presidency and his promises of mass deportation, the stakes are even higher with this infrastructure in place, said Sastre. She said detention rates go up because “when you have beds to fill for which you have to pay a daily bed rate, there is an incentive to make sure they’re filled.”
Sastre said it will not only impact people who are detained, but ripple out and harm their families and communities. She said there will be more intimidation at people’s workplaces and people fearing accessing health care. With half of the people in New Jersey being foreign born, she worries that this will affect much of the state. Additionally, she said that people from neighboring communities like New York could end up detained in New Jersey’s facilities.
“This is going to impact New Jerseyans and New Yorkers in a huge way, and it’s just going to line the pockets of private prison companies in the process,” said Sastre. “I can’t express how devastating this is.”
