Conditions at NJ ICE Facility Are Meant to ‘Break People,’ U.S. Rep Says After Visit

Difficult conditions and inadequate staffing in a privately owned ICE detention center in Newark are degrading the health of detainees inside, a pair of New Jersey U.S. representatives said after a tour Monday.

Rep. Rob Menendez and Rep. Nellie Pou, both Democrats representing districts in urban North Jersey, conducted an oversight visit to Delaney Hall on Doremus Avenue.

They told reporters that dozens of detainees inside complained of inadequate medical care, difficulty visiting with family and friends, dirty air, and low-quality food.

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Reporters were not allowed to join the oversight visit. The congressmembers and their staff were not able to bring in their phones or take photos inside the facility.

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It sits between the Essex County jail and an NJ Transit bus garage on Doremus Avenue, a major truck route. Smells from a nearby sewage treatment plant and a fat rendering facility hang in the air.

Delaney Hall can hold up to about 1,200 detainees, though the actual population fluctuates. Pou said roughly 680 detainees are currently at Delaney Hall. She and Menendez said they met with detainees from around the globe, that none of them had criminal records, and that many of them had long-established lives in America.

Pou was making her first oversight visit to Delaney Hall. She called it an “eye-opening” experience. She said there was just one doctor and a handful of nurse practitioners in the facility’s medical clinic. Pou said she was concerned the medical staffing was not enough to handle emergencies.

Menendez said ICE and The GEO Group have repeatedly said that detainees who request medical care are seen within 24 hours. But he questions that. In one instance, Menendez said, a man described waiting over two months to see a dentist about mouth pain. Menendez said the man still has not gotten dental care, and instead is being given pain medication.

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