Two New Jersey lawmakers said Monday that conditions inside Delaney Hall in Newark are so bad the immigration detention center should be shut down, after a two-hour tour that left them calling the facility inhuman and overcrowded. Reps. Rob Menendez and Nellie Pou said they spoke with more than two dozen detainees during the visit.
Delaney Hall is used to hold people taken into custody by ICE, and the lawmakers said the center was holding 680 detainees when they toured it. Menendez said the problems they saw were not accidental. He said he believes the conditions are purposeful and meant to break people until they sign voluntary departure papers.
They said the issues they raised included overcrowding in rooms, delays in medical treatment and not enough food. Pou said none of the detainees they spoke with had been charged with any high level crime. Her comment sharpened the political fight around the facility, where supporters have argued it serves a detention function and critics have said the conditions inside need closer scrutiny.
The center is run by The GEO Group, which signed a 15-year contract with the U.S. government about a year ago to take in people picked up by ICE. That same period also marked the opening of Delaney Hall in Newark, making Monday’s tour part of an early test of how the new operation is being run.
Menendez pointed to one woman he said is a mother of two who brought her daughter to the United States for medical treatment she could not get in her country of origin. He said that was the kind of person being held there. For the lawmakers, the next step is not abstract: they said the facility should be shut down after what they saw Monday.
