New Jersey sues Delaney Hall operators for access after allegations of inhumane conditions
By Andy Rose, Leigh Waldman, CNN
(CNN) — The state of New Jersey filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the private operator of the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark, asking a court to grant the state health department access to the center over allegations of inhumane conditions and treatment there, the governor’s office said.
The suit comes after more than a week of protests – including clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators – outside the facility over the mistreatment claims, which the federal government has denied.
“The people of New Jersey deserve transparency and accountability, and I will continue using all the power of this office to advocate for the detainees and their families,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a release.
The lawsuit was filed on the same day the city of Newark said it would expand its own lawsuit against the site’s operator, The GEO Group, unless city officials are allowed to inspect it.
The city’s lawsuit expansion would ask a court to close the facility until the city could inspect it over longstanding allegations of inhumane conditions, Newark Business Administrator Eric Pennington said.
The 1,000-bed Delaney Hall site is owned and operated by GEO, a private contractor that manages 21 Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, according to its website.
“As the result of GEO’s refusal to permit the (state health department) meaningful access to Delaney Hall, Plaintiff remains unable to fulfill his obligation to protect public health, and is unable to ascertain whether Delaney Hall is currently placing residents – or the public at large – at risk through unsanitary or unsafe health practices,” New Jersey said in its lawsuit.
“The reports of detainees … receiving inadequate medical care, psychological abuse is troubling,” prompting the city to prepare “to expand … our lawsuit against Delaney Hall further than just code enforcement violations,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a news conference Tuesday before the state lawsuit was announced.
Longstanding complaints about the facility came to a head over Memorial Day weekend when detainees, according to their representatives, began a hunger and labor strike to protest conditions they said were inhumane. The allegations helped precipitate days of protests outside the facility, some leading to demonstrators’ arrests.
The allegations and protests are part of a broader outcry over the Trump administration’s nationwide, multifaceted immigration enforcement crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security has denied there was a hunger strike and pushed back against allegations of inhumane living conditions or treatment. CNN sought comment from The GEO Group on Tuesday about the new state lawsuit and the Newark mayor’s statement.
City has been fighting operator in court for a year
Newark sued The GEO Group in 2025 over its operation of Delaney Hall. The suit claimed GEO had failed to receive the proper state permits before reopening the center, which had served as an ICE detention facility the previous decade. After the case was moved from state court to federal court, a judge this year ordered it to go to private mediation. Baraka said if the city is not allowed to inspect the facility, the city will bring new allegations of mistreatment to the judge’s attention in hopes he will reconsider.
“Our objective is to close the building,” he said, “and the people who have the greatest ability to close the building is GEO Group.”
The state health department said it was not allowed to conduct a full inspection of the facility Friday, and was permitted only to examine food service areas. The new state lawsuit says New Jersey’s attempt to inspect the facility again Monday was thwarted by GEO, which said it could not allow further access without permission from ICE.
“In denying Plaintiff full access to the facility, Defendant never explained how Plaintiff’s request was at all burdensome,” New Jersey said in its lawsuit, which was filed in Essex County Superior Court, “nor why Plaintiff would need to route its request through ICE when GEO Group owns and operates Delaney Hall.”
The city of Newark asked The GEO Group for access again Monday night and is awaiting a response, Pennington said Tuesday.
“We are, again, obligated, just as with any other facility, to go in and make sure our health department has access,” said Pennington.
“GEO is a private company who is hiding under the auspices of a contract that they have with the federal government,” Baraka said.
“This is a private facility – private workers – and they are subject to state and municipal laws,” he added. “They cannot be shielded by a contract that they have with Homeland Security.”
Protest clashes prompted more law enforcement presence
By Sunday, Sherrill, a Democrat, called in state troopers to take over from ICE agents the monitoring and policing of protesters outside Delaney Hall, blaming the rising tension in part on “national extremist groups” from out of state that she said were inflaming the situation.
The decision to send in state troopers – some on horseback – infuriated many protesters while drawing praise from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“We support every Americans constitutional right to peacefully protest. No one has the right to RIOT and ASSAULT law enforcement,” Mullin said Saturday on X.
Baraka called claims that DHS has been cooperating with local officials “offensive” and said state and local efforts to bring clashes under control were partially out of concern that ICE and border czar Tom Homan could send more federal officers to the site, which Baraka said would escalate the situation.
In response to an increasing number of arrests and clashes with officers, Baraka implemented an overnight curfew Sunday around Delaney Hall while also condemning ICE for what he called provocative action against protesters before state police took over.
No arrests were made outside the facility Monday night, and Baraka said he hopes to end the curfew by Wednesday, he said.
Sherrill said she has been denied access to see the conditions inside Delaney Hall for herself, although House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was able to enter Sunday. In discussions inside with about two dozen detainees, he “learned of unsanitary living conditions, lack of adequate medical care and unhealthy food,” he said.
“Immigration enforcement in this country – it should be fair, just and humane, and nothing that we saw at Delaney Hall or that people have previously experienced at Delaney Hall suggest that that is what is taking place,” Jeffries told CNN’s Erin Burnett Monday.
Some allegations brought to light by city officials were made in correspondence from people inside Delaney Hall, Pennington said.
Among detainee allegations, according to some of their attorneys, were that they were served spoiled food.
Homan, who visited the facility over the weekend, told Fox News on Monday he had eaten the same meal served to detainees. “The food was good,” he said. He also said local officials had been unable to substantiate claims of mistreatment.
“You’re making all these allegations. Give me an example. Give me a name. Give me a date,” Homan said. “Who was abused? Who wasn’t given medical attention? Give me the specifics. And they couldn’t.”
DHS has said meals are certified by dietitians, and it says detainees have comprehensive medical care.
“No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been better treated than illegal aliens. They are provided 3 meals a day, medical care, and receive full due process,” Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis said Friday.
Delaney Hall owner has expanded business as ICE funding increased
The GEO Group first sought a contract in 2023 to reopen Delaney Hall. In addition to holding state and local detainees at various times since opening in 2000, it previously was used as an ICE facility from 2011 to 2017, according to a court filing. At the time, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker sent an open letter to the Biden administration asking it to deny the request, calling the private contract “an insult to immigrant communities and advocates in New Jersey and around the country who have fought tirelessly to document the human rights abuses at private detention centers.”
The GEO Group has the highest revenue of any private detention contractor in the United States, the Brennan Center for Justice reported last year. This year it is holding approximately 24,000 ICE detainees, a company record, CEO George Zoley told investors in a conference call in February. It is also the industry’s top contributor to political campaigns, according to OpenSecrets.
GEO has maintained close ties to officials at DHS, the Washington Post reported, with a veteran former executive of the company being hired last year by the Trump administration to oversee an expansion of ICE detention facilities using $45 billion set aside by Congress last year.
On its website, GEO says its ICE facilities provide “high-quality, culturally responsive services in safe, secure, and humane environments that meet the needs of the individuals in the care and custody of federal immigration authorities.”
“In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE” and other DHS personnel “to ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive,” the company said in an earlier statement responding to criticism of its operation of Delaney Hall.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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