Newark immigrant detention center under fire as New Jersey lawmakers demand changes for visitor safety

A half-dozen members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation slammed the Trump administration’s inhumane treatment of visitors to Newark’s Delaney Hall in a letter to federal officials — and gave the feds two weeks to detail their plans to fix the troubled immigrant detention center.

The Sept. 30 letter — sent to Kristi Noem of the Department of Homeland Security and David Donahue, CEO of the private prison firm GEO Group, also condemned reports of “poor conditions within the facility itself,”  which The Jersey Vindicator recently buttressed in its own reporting.  

But the lawmakers mostly focused on the visitors and referenced a September incident in which GEO Group guards forced detainees’ friends and family to stand along a metal fence outside the 1,000-bed, privately run facility during a summer storm that brought torrential rain, booming thunder, and flashes of lightning.

“It is both shocking and deeply irresponsible to line people up against a metal fence during an active lightning storm, a situation that poses obvious and severe risks of electrocution,” the members of Congress wrote.

“Reports have also surfaced of visitors left standing for hours in the heat of the summer sun, exposed to extreme temperatures and health risks,” they wrote. “These conditions are unacceptable and reflect a profound disregard for the dignity, well-being, and basic rights of those who come to visit individuals who have been detained.”

Delaney Hall has been a lightning rod for controversy since the feds opened it this spring to house undocumented people swept up in the Trump administration’s massive immigration raids.

It is not clear how many people are being held at the Doremus Avenue site, which sits next to the Essex County Jail near Newark Bay.

But reports about brutal mistreatment and squalid conditions have surfaced regularly, and riots erupted in June after angry detainees confronted their guards about a lack of food.

Afterward, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided to transfer scores of detainees to red states where judges would be more favorable to the Trump administration, immigrant advocates said at the time.

But it is not just the detainees who are suffering.

People who come to visit have complained about a range of issues, including long waits, poor communication from guards, favoritism toward certain visitors, and retaliation against anyone who speaks to either advocates or the press, civil rights advocates have said.

The lawmakers’ letter — which was signed by Democratic Reps. Donald Norcross, Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, Josh Gottheimer, and Nellie Pou — urged officials to “immediately provide human accommodations for visitors” that include covered waiting areas, consistent visiting hours, and bathroom and parking access.

The letter also said the Department of Homeland Security and the GEO Group, the private company that runs the facility’s day-to-day operations, should revamp its entry process to avoid lengthy delays, improve communication and transparency, and give visitors access to clothes in case of dress code violations.

The legislators set a deadline of Oct. 16 for the agencies to send a written response detailing how they would fix these “unacceptable practices.”

“Visitation plays a vital role in correctional settings by supporting family bonds and sustaining community relationships,” they wrote in their letter. “The treatment of visitors should reflect this importance … No one should have to risk their safety simply to see their loved one.”

Both ICE and GEO Group have denied accusations that they mistreat visitors or detainees.

Neither immediately responded to requests for comment on Thursday.