“It’s our Minneapolis moment”
Private ICE
Delaney Hall is in Newark, New Jersey. While it sounds like it should be an historic landmark on the Boston “Freedom Trail”, it actually is a twenty-six year old building, built originally to house federal, state and county detainees. Perhaps ironically, it was named in honor of Geraldine Delaney, a pioneer in drug rehabilitation, and was opened for that purpose.
But the drug rehabilitation mission soon ended, and Delaney became a privately run, high capacity detention center, operated by a corporation, the GEO Group. GEO runs 95 secure facilities, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia and South Africa. Delaney Hall was unused from 2023 until GEO and ICE signed a $1 Billion, fifteen-year contract for immigrant detention services at the beginning of the second Trump Administration.
Today, ICE ‘houses” nearly 1000 immigrants at Delaney Hall.
The conditions for those migrants have been a concern from the very beginnings of this current use of the facility. In May of 2025, Ras Baraka, the Mayor of the City of Newark, was arrested while trying to gain access for a city inspection. Three members of Congress were also involved, including Congressman LaMonica McIver, who still faces felony assault charges for resisting an ICE agent.
Word of unacceptable conditions continues to come from the facility. Lack of normal medical care, inedible and inadequate food, and poor housing conditions have resulted in detainee unrest. Four made a “prison break” (ultimately returned) and at least one man died of “inconclusive causes”.
Hunger Strike
A few weeks ago, 300 detainees launched a hunger strike to highlight the unacceptable conditions. This action generated increased protests outside of the facility, and created clashes with ICE and other Federal law enforcement agencies, and more recently the New Jersey State Police. That’s where we are today.
Both New Jersey US Senators, Booker and Kim, demanded access to inspect the facility. They were allowed to go in, but not before Senator Kim was pepper sprayed during a protest. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied access and demanded that the facility be closed. Activists are calling Delaney Hall a “modern day concentration camp”. Protestors have tried to deny access to the facility, and Federal agents are using chemical agents to “disperse” the crowds.
Demonstrations continue outside of the Hall. It has become a “flash-point”, not just for Federal authorities versus demonstrators, but “pro-ICE” activists versus “anti-ICE”. And many of the protestors against the facility, were taken by surprise when Democratic Governor Sherrill ordered the New Jersey State Police in (to replace the Federal authorities trying to stop the protests). The Police acted pretty much the same way as the Feds, in spite of Sherrill’s stand against the facility. The question for protestors became, whose side is she on?
Sherrill used the term “outside agitators”, saying they were trying to generate violence. But it wasn’t clear if she meant outside agitators like the Proud Boys trying to create confrontation, or outside agitators against ICE. Her once clear position is now clouded. Even Mayor Baraka declared an overnight curfew in the immediate area around the facility last night.
Who’s There?
And meanwhile, there is little news about the 300 on hunger strike. It’s been a couple of weeks; the specter of starvations and forced feedings increases. The staff of the facility itself are not Federal agents. These are the private employees of GEO, not as clearly bound to inmate protections as actual Federal employees.
For many in New Jersey and elsewhere, this is the next flashpoint in the battle against the Trump Administration immigration policy. The mouthpieces for Trump, folks like the new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullins and Immigration Czar Tom Hohman, claim that those in Delaney are “criminals”, including rapists and murderers. But the vast majority of those detained are guilty of only minor civil immigration offenses; paperwork failures. And some, don’t even have those.
“Red Bubble” Americans believe the “rapists, murderers and drug dealers” Trump line. They have a difficult time understanding why folks are protesting both their imprisonment and the deplorable conditions. After all, isn’t that what “rapists, murderers and drug dealers” deserve?
Who Cares?
But the protestors, and the detainees families know better. And so do the Democratic politicians of New Jersey. The battle lines are clear. The question is: where is the media?
My “Blue silo” of media only briefly mentions the ongoing struggle in the streets outside of Delaney Hall. Even NBC, whose local news van was attacked by ICE there, has little coverage. And there’s almost nothing about what’s going on inside. Compare this to the coverage of Minneapolis or Los Angeles. What’s changed?
To those on the streets outside of Delaney, the answer is nothing. And they are fighting for all of us, whether the media watches it or not.
