NJ faith leaders call for man’s release from ICE custody

Advocates gathered outside the Elizabeth Detention Center on Tuesday to call for Martin Soto’s release.

The wife of a New Jersey man held in federal immigration custody for nine months joined faith leaders and advocates outside the Elizabeth Detention Center on Tuesday to demand his release, saying months of detention and isolation have taken a growing toll on him.

Martín Alonso Soto Hernandez has been held at the Elizabeth facility since May, when he was transferred from Delaney Hall in Newark after helping organize a hunger and labor strike over conditions there. His wife, Gabriela Soto, and other supporters say he has spent about two months in isolated confinement at Elizabeth and believe his treatment is retaliation for his role in the strike.

Gabriela Soto told those gathered outside the detention center that she wants her husband released from immigration custody entirely, not simply moved out of isolation. Soto said her husband’s continued detention has taken a severe toll on the family. She said their daughter cries at night for her father, has begun wetting the bed and is receiving therapy.

“It is draining him mentally. It is draining me mentally. It is draining our daughter,” Soto said.

The family has also been grieving the loss of a pregnancy while Martín Soto remains detained. Gabriela Soto said the family sought his discretionary release during that period, but his immigration officer denied the request.

“We are suffering emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, financially,” she said. “We are suffering in general.”

The gathering Tuesday brought together faith leaders, mental health professionals, immigrant rights advocates and prison justice groups calling for Soto’s release from the Elizabeth facility. They also called for an end to prolonged isolation in immigration detention.

Soto’s supporters said he has spent approximately two months isolated from other detainees.

A mental health professional who spoke at Tuesday’s gathering warned that prolonged isolation can cause anxiety, depression, sleep problems, difficulty concentrating and other psychological problems.

“Without human contact, without sensory stimulation, without the ordinary rhythms of life, the mind begins to unravel,” Mark Williams said.

Williams cited the United Nations’ Nelson Mandela Rules, which define solitary confinement as confinement for at least 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact and prolonged solitary confinement as isolation lasting more than 15 consecutive days.

“The question is not whether solitary confinement harms mental health,” Williams said. “The question is, why do we continue to allow it?”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained Soto Feb. 1 after he left his family’s Kearny home to buy diapers for his young son, according to his wife. They initially took him to Delaney Hall, a privately operated immigration detention center in Newark.

His wife has said Soto came to the United States from Peru in January 2024, turned himself in to immigration officials after crossing the border and was initially detained for four months. He was later released while pursuing an asylum case. He then married Gabriela and lived with his family in Kearny before being detained again in February.

While at Delaney Hall, Soto helped organize a hunger and labor strike in May over food, medical care and other conditions at the facility. Soto was removed from Delaney Hall as the strike and demonstrations outside the facility continued. His wife said guards had told him he was being released, but he was instead transferred to the Elizabeth Detention Center. U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez later confirmed that Soto had been moved to Elizabeth.

The Rev. Charles Loflin, executive director of Unitarian Universalist Faith Action New Jersey, said Tuesday that Soto should not have to wait for his immigration case to be resolved to receive mental health treatment.

“He needs mental help now,” Loflin said. “He is going to need mental help in the days to come.”

Other faith leaders framed Soto’s detention as part of a broader moral argument over immigration detention and the treatment of people in custody.

Advocates for immigrants are asking federal officials to release Soto from isolated confinement and immigration detention, provide him access to mental health and spiritual care, and allow him to pursue his immigration case while living with his family.

Gabriela Soto said Tuesday that the family’s immediate concern is bringing her husband home.

“I want to call for the release of my husband, because it has been far too long,” she said.