State officials had been trying to investigate reports of unsafe and unsanitary conditions inside the Newark immigration detention center.

New Jersey officials have sued the private prison company that operates Newark’s Delaney Hall, alleging it blocked state health inspectors from examining the immigrant detention center despite months of complaints about unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

The lawsuit, filed June 2 in Essex County Superior Court, claims the commissioner of the state Department of Health can walk in and inspect any public or private detention center if there is reason to believe health code violations are occurring.

But GEO Group, the private prison firm that operates the 1,000-bed facility on Doremus Avenue, denied inspectors full access to the facility last week. The complaint argues the refusal violated state law and puts detainees, workers, and the public at risk.

“If the GEO Group — with a $1 billion government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit.

The state wants a judge to order GEO Group to let inspectors review the entire facility, which the lawsuit said is the “focus of well-documented concerns about inhumane and unsanitary conditions for detainees.”

A GEO Group spokesperson did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment. But the company has previously denied all allegations of mistreatment.

Immigrant detainees have complained since Delaney opened last spring about squalid conditions inside the hulking fortress, including allegations of foul-tasting water, worm-riddled food, erratic meal times, poor medical care, abusive guards, and the unchecked spread of the flu and COVID-19.

Last June, detainees rioted after guards ignored repeated requests for food for more than 20 hours, then served a lunch that detainees said was insufficient.

The uprising, which also led to four male detainees breaking out, later contributed to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s decision to transfer scores of detainees to red states where judges would be more favorable to the Trump administration, immigrant advocates said at the time.

Unsanitary and unsafe conditions

Activists say the conditions have not improved, and about 300 detainees launched a hunger and labor strike on May 22 to draw more attention to their plight and demand that Sherrill visit the site to meet with them.

Protesters flocked to Delaney to show their support and have since clashed with ICE agents, Department of Homeland Security personnel, and the New Jersey State Police almost every night over the past 10 days.

Meanwhile, oversight visits by members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation confirmed many of the complaints and led to new accusations that GEO maintained filthy bathrooms and had not installed air conditioning ahead of the hot, humid summer months.

During one such visit on May 23, U.S. Sen. Andy Kim spoke with a pregnant woman who said she was not receiving full obstetric and gynecological care, the complaint said. Another woman told him she had miscarried inside but had been left to deal with it on her own.

There has also been at least one reported case of tuberculosis, a highly infectious airborne disease that kills more than 1 million people worldwide every year.

On Memorial Day, Sherrill briefly visited the detention camp but was barred from entering.

When state inspectors arrived days later, GEO only let them inspect a small section of the complex.

“Not only did GEO decline to engage in any pre-meeting to discuss the scope of the inspection — as is the department’s customary practice — GEO also repeatedly declined the department’s offers to split its inspection team in half to cover both food safety and general sanitation,” the state’s lawsuit reads. “In fact, GEO specifically declined to permit the inspectors access to the medical facilities even when the inspectors were escorted past those facilities.”

Later, the company told inspectors they would not be allowed to evaluate other parts of the facility without a green light from ICE.

The state tried to secure the federal agency’s permission, but ICE denied the request after several days of wrangling, the complaint said.

“[The inspectors] were barred from inspecting crucial areas of the facility, including the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathing and toileting areas,” according to a statement issued by the governor and attorney general on June 2 announcing the lawsuit. “An inspection would allow DOH to verify whether the protocols or practices inside Delaney Hall pose a serious risk of harm to detainees within the facility or to the public outside of it.”

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said the firm must allow the health inspectors inside.

“The reports of unsanitary and unsafe conditions inside Delaney Hall are extremely concerning,” she said. “And GEO Group — like any other business and facility in New Jersey — must follow the law.”