Judge sends Newark’s lawsuit against Delaney Hall operator to mediation

Newark alleges GEO Group opened the detention center without proper permits or inspections

The city of Newark’s legal fight with the private prison firm operating the controversial Delaney Hall immigrant detention center is headed to mediation after a federal judge ordered the parties to try to resolve their differences.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre referred the case to mediation last month and directed the two sides to complete talks by June 15, according to the court order. Representatives from Newark and the prison firm, GEO Group, will return to court for a status conference 10 days later.

The city sued the GEO Group in Essex County Superior Court in April of 2025 for allegedly opening the detention complex without securing the necessary permits and inspections, then throwing out city and state officials who wanted to get inside and review the work.

“Without being permitted to inspect defendants’ building, city officials cannot determine if the building is in fact fit for occupation,” the complaint reads. “The city will suffer greater harm if not permitted to inspect the property than defendants will suffer if delayed in their use of the building pending inspection and compliance.”

The four-count suit accused the GEO Group of failing to permit officials inside the Doremus Avenue facility and violating city code.

Newark’s attorneys want a judge to force the GEO Group to let inspectors inside the detention camp and tp award damages to the city, including attorneys’ fees.

Neither the GEO Group nor the attorneys representing the city responded to a request for comment Thursday, May 21.

The court battle has unfolded amid increasing scrutiny of the conditions at Delaney Hall and a wider fight against the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which include sweeping raids on undocumented communities.

ICE had detained about 60,000 people across the country as of April 4, according to TRAC reports, with Delaney housing an average of about 900 people each day. Nearly 3 in 4 had no criminal record, according to the site.

The federal government reopened Delaney Hall last spring after the GEO Group signed a 15-year, $1 billion contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run the 1,000-bed complex near the northern tip of Newark Bay.

But the facility has attracted all the wrong kinds of attention since then, with detainees regularly complaining of water that’s unfit to drink, food that’s unfit to eat, erratic meal times, inconsistent medication distribution, and callous guards, among other things.

And at least one detainee, a 41-year-old undocumented Haitian man named Jean Wilson Brutus, has died at the facility since it opened. Immigration officials said in December that Brutus died from “suspected natural causes” just one day after ICE agents seized him.

The families of the detained have endured their own trials, such as standing outside Delaney in all types of weather as they wait to see their loved ones and adhering to an ever-shifting set of visitation rules set by mercurial guards posted at the gates.

Several prominent Democrats, including Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker, have demanded the feds close the complex as a result of the multitude of complaints.

The GEO Group and ICE have repeatedly denied any allegations of negligence or wrongdoing, often framing the allegations as a politically motivated effort to interfere with Trump’s immigration agenda.