ACLU-NJ raises constitutional concerns over Delaney Hall visitation restrictions
Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, a detainee who died Aug. 1 following a medical emergency, allegedly was denied visits with his daughter.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to revise visitation policies at Delaney Hall in Newark, arguing that the facility’s restrictions may violate detainees’ constitutional rights.
In a letter the ACLU-NJ sent ICE on Wednesday, the organization said visits at the immigration detention center are limited to immediate family members and permitted only during two narrow windows each week. Delaney Hall is operated by GEO Group, a private prison company, under a contract with ICE.
According to the ACLU-NJ, legal guardians, close friends, and others who are detainees’ primary sources of support have been denied visits. The organization also alleges that visitation rules are applied inconsistently. Some families travel long distances, only to be turned away without an explanation.
The letter cited reports that Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, a detainee who died Aug. 1 following an unspecified medical emergency, had been denied visits with his 12-year-old daughter.
The ACLU-NJ also alleged that family members who publicly criticized conditions at Delaney Hall or ICE’s conduct have been denied visits in apparent retaliation, potentially violating their First Amendment rights.
“Families and loved ones of people detained at Delaney Hall have reported punitive visitation practices that are more restrictive than prisons in New Jersey,” ACLU-NJ staff attorney Molly Linhorst said.
The organization asked ICE to establish a written visitation policy addressing its constitutional concerns and to train GEO Group employees to apply the rules consistently.
The letter follows a labor and hunger strike that detainees began in May to protest conditions at the facility. Detainees and their families have raised repeated concerns about food, water, medical care, and visitation rights.
Delaney Hall, a former private prison on Doremus Avenue, reopened as an immigration detention center in 2025. GEO Group has a 15-year contract with ICE worth about $1 billion to operate the facility.
Krystal Knapp is the founder, executive director, and publisher of The Jersey Vindicator and the founder of Planet Princeton. She has more than two decades of experience reporting in New Jersey, including 10 years at The Trenton Times, where she was the newsroom’s public records and computer-assisted reporting expert. Her work has been recognized by the New Jersey Press Association and the Center for Cooperative Media. You can reach her at Krystal AT jerseyvindicator.org.