The ACLU of New Jersey has issued a response to the new contract signed by GEO Group, Inc. for opening Delaney Hall in Newark as an immigration detention facility for ICE. The contract is valued at $1 billion and will provide 1,000 beds over a 15-year period, significantly increasing detention capacity in New Jersey.
According to prior FOIA litigation by the ACLU, the contract aims to offer "comprehensive detention services for adult male and female noncitizens" and includes facilities for general population, intake, segregated housing, and medical beds. This facility is set to be one of the first ICE facilities opened during President Trump's second term.
Amol Sinha, Executive Director of ACLU-NJ, stated: “The planned opening of Delaney Hall as a private immigration detention facility presents a serious threat to New Jersey’s immigrant communities and is one of the largest immigration detention contracts our state has ever seen. This massive increase in detention capacity places the public in further danger of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional, racist, and xenophobic mass detention and deportation agenda. With rapidly increasing federal immigration enforcement in New Jersey, this announcement is a further attack on our state and only adds to the rising fear felt by people who call our state home. This is a critical moment that demands action from state and local leaders.”
The ACLU-NJ emphasizes that for New Jersey to uphold its values of fairness and inclusivity, it should not support what they describe as the Trump administration's extreme mass detention agenda. They urge state lawmakers to take action by passing the Immigrant Trust Act, which would limit cooperation between state and local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities when such cooperation is voluntary under federal law.
