New Jersey Attorney General Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Delaney Hall ICE Facility
The Facts
- New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced on Friday that the state's Division on Civil Rights has opened a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall and issued investigative subpoenas.
- The investigation will examine whether any action or inaction by GEO Group employees violated the civil rights of people detained at the facility, citing reports about conditions and recent deaths.
- Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed immigration detention facility in Newark operated by The GEO Group under a 15-year contract worth about $1 billion.
- The investigation follows the deaths of three detainees held at the facility within less than a year.
- Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, of El Salvador, died on Aug. 1 after what ICE called a medical emergency at Delaney Hall, and his family said the facility failed to provide him needed medical attention.
- Rep. Rob Menendez said a third detainee died after having a seizure during intake at Delaney Hall and being granted a discretionary release from ICE custody; Menendez said it took two weeks to confirm the death and that he learned of it during an unannounced oversight visit.
- Detainees and former detainees have described conditions including spoiled or substandard food and difficulty obtaining medical care, and detainees staged a hunger strike between May and June; protests outside the facility have continued for months.
- Elected officials have pressed for the facility to close: Gov. Mikie Sherrill has called for its closure, and Sen. Cory Booker introduced a Delaney Hall Closure Act.
Context
How have GEO Group and the federal government responded?
The Trump administration and GEO Group have denied claims of substandard care at the facility POLITICO. The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly addressed Rep. Rob Menendez's account of the third detainee death 6abc Action News,Yahoo.
Why is Delaney Hall a focus of state-federal conflict?
The facility reopened during President Trump's second term and has been described as the first federal detention center to open under that administration POLITICO,Raw Story. It has drawn scrutiny from Democratic elected officials for months, and protests outside the site earlier in the year led to clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement Reuters,NJ.com,FOX 5 Atlanta. The New York Times characterized the state investigation as an escalation of New Jersey's dispute with the Trump administration NYT.
What could the investigation lead to?
The state's Division on Civil Rights is leading the inquiry and has issued investigative subpoenas to GEO Group as a first step; the announcement did not disclose findings or penalties NJ.com,ABC7 New York,Yahoo. Davenport said detained people, including those held by a private corporation, have rights that include humane treatment and adequate medical care, and that the state would 'take every action' available Washington Examiner,WPIX.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Three deaths in under a year inside a privately run detention facility demand a formal accounting — neither framing treats the state's subpoenas as unwarranted or the conditions accounts as noise.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about who answers for people held under a billion-dollar outsourced custody contract, or about an inquiry launched into a closure campaign whose verdict is already written.
How left and right read it
New Jersey's Division on Civil Rights has subpoenaed The GEO Group, examining whether its employees' action or inaction violated the rights of people detained at Delaney Hall. Three deaths in under a year, a hunger strike, accounts of spoiled food and unreachable medical care — inside a 1,000-bed facility run under a 15-year contract worth roughly a billion dollars. One death took two weeks to confirm. When custody is outsourced this profitably, who answers for the people inside it?
“Located in an industrial part of North Jersey, the immigration jail has become a political flashpoint as tensions over immigration policy continue to rise.” — POLITICO
A $1 billion, 15-year federal detention contract is now under state subpoena — announced the same Friday the closure campaign already had a governor demanding shutdown and a Delaney Hall Closure Act in the Senate. Note too that one of the three deaths came after ICE granted a discretionary release. Findings should precede verdicts. Run this inquiry on evidence and due process, not toward a conclusion already written.
“Attention has shifted back to Delaney Hall after Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, died in the facility last week. Democrats have rallied to take action against the center” — Washington Examiner
The receipts — all 31 sources
Wire services (2)
Independent coverage (29)
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