ICE, Homeland Security, and GEO Group representatives did not testify; ACLU-NJ head recounted detainees’ experiences inside the facility

Before the first witness testified Wednesday, the title of a Republican-led congressional hearing had already declared that reports of mistreatment at Delaney Hall were fabricated.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican who represents New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, chaired the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight hearing, titled “False Narratives Surrounding Conditions at the Delaney Hall ICE Detention Center.”

Over nearly two hours, Republican lawmakers disputed reports of inadequate food, medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, and mistreatment at the Newark immigration detention center. No witnesses were called from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, or GEO Group, the private company that operates Delaney Hall.

Instead, Republicans called three witnesses who defended immigration detention and enforcement but had no firsthand knowledge of conditions at Delaney Hall. Two had never visited the facility, and the third had last been there nearly a decade ago, before it closed in 2017.

Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the only witness called by Democrats, challenged the hearing’s premise, saying its characterization of the reports as false was not supported by the record.

Sinha said he recently met with a former detainee who did not eat for three days after arriving at Delaney Hall because the food smelled rancid. When the man finally ate to avoid starving, he experienced severe pain. After asking for a doctor, he waited seven more days to see one. Following his release, he spent a week in the hospital and required surgery for a serious gastrointestinal condition that developed while he was detained.

“I wish I could tell you that his case was unusual, but I could sit here and tell you about the man denied his wheelchair for 40 days, the 18-year-old denied the ability to finish high school on time, the husband who lost so much weight that even lying down became physically painful,” Sinha said.

“This is the pattern—the lack of access to medical care, the coercion to sign purportedly voluntary departure agreements, the unsanitary conditions and inedible food, the broken air conditioning in 100-degree temperatures,” he said. “Every person I’ve spoken with, every letter that has come out of that facility, tells some version of a similar account.”

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Hundreds of detainees participated in a hunger and labor strike in order to call attention to conditions at Delaney Hall, Sinha said.

“No one should have to starve themselves for the government to recognize their humanity,” he said. “ICE responded with pepper spray, solitary confinement, and punitive transfers.”

Sinha also cited the rising number of deaths in immigration detention. More than 50 people have died in ICE custody during the current Trump administration, he said, noting that John Wilson Brutus died after being at Delaney Hall for a day.

“ICE is sending a chilling message to every family in New Jersey and across the country,” Sinha said. “Being an immigrant and exercising your solidarity with immigrants is unsafe.”

Van Drew offered a sharply different account, saying he had toured Delaney Hall and found that detainees received adequate food, health care, recreation, and other services. He and

“I walked the facility. I met with the staff,” Van Drew said. “What I saw goes against all the narratives that you hear and that the Democrats have tried to say about this facility.”

Van Drew said detainees receive three meals a day evaluated by dietitians, along with medical, dental, and mental health care. He said the facility provides a variety of meal options and has a gym and soccer fields.

“They get 24-hour emergency care whenever and wherever it’s needed,” he said.

Van Drew also cited a state inspection that found the facility’s kitchen satisfactory and reported no evidence of vermin. The inspection focused on the kitchen and did not address the broader complaints described by Sinha.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the full House Judiciary Committee, countered that Senator Andy Kim, who conducted unannounced oversight visits of the facility, reported seeing milk so spoiled it had curdled. Detainees reported that the water was foul-tasting and undrinkable and that people were forced to sleep on floors due to overcrowding, Raskin said.

“Detainees experience poor ventilation, extreme cold in winter, scalding showers, physical abuse by guards, and a shortage of basic necessities,” Raskin said. “The medical conditions of detainees are alarming.”

Scott Mechowski, a former deputy director of ICE’s New York field office who testified, said Delaney Hall is required to follow national detention standards and is subject to inspections and audits.

“Detention standards are not aspirational,” Mechowski said. “Delaney Hall runs under enforceable national detention standards that are inspected, audited by multiple entities, and written down.”

Van Drew said there is no overcrowding at Delaney Hall. Republicans accused Democrats of grandstanding.

“The Americans working inside that facility are taxpayers. They live and work in Newark and Essex County and are being denied police protection for doing a lawful job. The men and women at Delaney Hall enforce the laws that this Congress wrote under the standards stricter than any American jail that hold American citizens. They deserve better and not to be used as props,” Mechowski said. ‘So let’s do facts. This is a tell on how the critics operate. Senator Booker announced his visit on social media. Senator Kim came for a meeting. Congressman Rob Menendez and Congressman Watson Coleman turned the anniversary of their own visit into a bill signing and rolled out video in front of Delaney Hall. Congressman McIver is currently under federal indictment on three counts including two felonies for allegedly assaulting and impeding federal law enforcement officers at this facility.”

Republicans also questioned whether the detainees’ protest constituted a genuine hunger strike. Van Drew and Mechowski said commissary sales at Delaney Hall rose while the strike was underway.

“They were going to the commissary, and they were getting their potato chips and Twinkies,” Van Drew said. “They were getting plenty of food.”

Mechowski claimed that commissary sales nearly tripled during the period identified as the hunger strike.

“It is not a hunger strike when the detainee refuses meals at chow time, only to stuff his face with Hot Cheetos and Twinkies in his dormitory at night,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, questioned whether the Republican witnesses had enough firsthand experience with Delaney Hall to assess its current operations.

Mechowski said his last visit occurred before he retired and before the facility closed in 2017. Art Del Cueto, a former Border Patrol agent and adviser to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, acknowledged that he had never visited Delaney Hall.

“You have no personal knowledge upon which you can reasonably conclude that what Mr. Sinha has reported about the conditions at Delaney Hall are true or false, isn’t that correct?” Johnson asked Del Cueto.

“My personal knowledge would be from seeing other immigration detention facilities throughout my career,” Del Cueto replied.

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, disclosed the same limitation at the beginning of his testimony.

“First, a confession,” Arthur said. “I’ve never been to Delaney Hall, and I’ve never toured the facility to assess any of the allegations that have been made about it.”

Arthur said he was familiar with ICE’s national detention standards through his previous work overseeing and visiting other facilities. He argued that numerous safeguards exist to identify problems.

“There’s always a danger that what Congress is being told isn’t the full truth,” Arthur said. “There are, however, numerous safeguards built into the system to ensure that problems aren’t hidden and the legislative branch is not deceived.”

Van Drew said Martin Soto, whom he identified as a leader of the strike, had been arrested on a domestic violence charge before entering ICE custody. He cited documents he said the committee had obtained.

“He ain’t my hero,” Van Drew said.

Throughout the hearing, Van Drew and other Republicans repeatedly characterized detainees as dangerous criminals and argued that detention was necessary to keep them off the streets.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the full House Judiciary Committee, said about 90% of the 891 people detained at Delaney Hall in April had no criminal record. Among those who did, the most common offenses were traffic violations, he said.

Sinha also challenged the administration’s portrayal of the detainees, citing their own statistics. More than 70% of the people at Delaney Hall have no criminal history, nearly 90% have no criminal conviction, and 84% do not have a final removal order, he said.

“We’re spending billions of taxpayer dollars detaining people who pose no threat to the public, while GEO Group pockets over $60 million a year from Delaney Hall alone,” Sinha said. “Delaney Hall is not an outlier. This year alone, there have been at least six other hunger strikes in ICE facilities nationwide. When you pour billions of dollars into a detention infrastructure that’s already riddled with abuse, with no oversight, it comes at a human cost.”

Van Drew said that detainees who are unhappy with the facility could leave voluntarily.

“If it’s so bad at Delaney Hall, just so you know, everybody has the option to self-deport,” Van Drew said.

Raskin highlighted the case of Marlon Andres Torres Gomez, who won a federal court ruling after ICE prevented him from leaving the country voluntarily.

An immigration judge had approved Torres Gomez’s departure, and he had a plane ticket to leave the country and an agreement with ICE, according to Raskin. Federal officials stopped him at the airport and returned him to Delaney Hall. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that his continued detention was unlawful.

Republicans devoted much of the hearing to sanctuary city policies, protests, and threats against immigration officers. Del Cueto said criticism from elected officials and activists had encouraged confrontations with federal agents.

“This type of rhetoric from our elected officials not only raises the temperature, but it emboldens protesters into confrontations and incites more violence,” Del Cueto said. “Continuing to liken ICE officers to Nazis will continue to lead to the radical taking matters into their own hands.”

Del Cueto said the “smear campaign” against Delaney Hall is part of “a broader assault on immigration enforcement and on the men and women in uniform.”

Sinha said people who commit violence should be held accountable but rejected the suggestion that criticism of ICE was responsible for violent acts.

He also challenged subcommittee members to visit Delaney Hall and open the facility to independent, unannounced, and uncensored oversight visits.

“Allow the press in. Allow members of Congress in. Allow advocacy organizations in for full access,” Sinha said. “Pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act and conduct oversight as members of Congress are empowered to do.”

Before Van Drew adjourned the hearing, he said all members of the subcommittee would have five days to submit additional written questions for the witnesses or additional materials for the record.