Outside notorious ICE detention center, activists provide care and solidarity to immigrant families

After waves of repression by federal agents against protests and inspections of Delaney Hall in New Jersey, immigrant rights activists and volunteers are providing mutual aid to those visiting loved ones at the controversial ICE facility.

Delaney Hall, a former halfway house on the outskirts of Newark, was the first new ICE detention center opened under Trump’s second administration. Immediately after its reopening as an ICE facility, Delaney Hall became a hotbed of immigrant rights struggle, especially after federal agents arrested Newark’s Mayor Ras Baraka as he attempted to inspect the facility.

In June, ICE detainees at Delaney Hall staged an uprising against inhumane conditions at the facility, including lack of food. “We are concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees,” said Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in a statement. “This entire situation lacks sufficient oversight of every basic detail – including local zoning laws and fundamental constitutional rights.”

But immigrant rights advocates in Newark did not let this episode of repression deter the struggle for better conditions at the facility, even as the Trump administration expanded their regime of ICE raids and detention. Activists have continued to rally and protest outside the facility, and provide mutual aid to those visiting loved ones detained by ICE.

Delaney Hall in New Jersey is the “only ICE facility in the entire country that does not provide an indoor waiting area for visitors,” said Kathy O’Leary, a member of Pax Christi USA, one of the many organizations active in providing support to those visiting loved ones detained at the facility.

Activists provide mutual aid outside Delaney Hall as winter approaches

O’Leary tells Peoples Dispatch that her organization, alongside others including but not limited to Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, COSECHA, Indivisible, the League of Women Voters, and the Democratic Socialists of America have been providing aid to visitors at Delaney Hall on a regular basis. Activists have provided “things like chairs and umbrellas when the sun is hot,” and now that winter is approaching, “we’re looking at how we’re going to keep people warm.”

“The list of support we try to give may change from moment to moment depending on the needs of those outside,” John Codd, a volunteer with First Friends of NY & and NJ who has also participated in mutual aid efforts, told Peoples Dispatch. “Gut it includes a place to sit down, and an umbrella for protection from the sun or from the rain, clothes to allow visitors to meet the extremely strict dress code imposed by Geo Group. It includes food to consume onsite, food to take home, and gift cards for food shopping.” Volunteers are also providing a “shoulder to lean on, somebody for a hug, somebody to laugh with,” Codd said.

When asked what motivates him to continue volunteering, despite the incidents of state repression and brutality against protesters at Delaney Hall, Codd mentions that “it’s what I feel I can do in the current environment that our country finds itself in.”

“I want to be clear, I’m not using the word ‘current’ to reflect the Trump administration,” Codd continued. “Because the current Delaney Hall was selected to be open by Joe Biden. Joe Biden was not a friend to immigrants,” Codd said. According to the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, “Geo Group’s plans to reopen the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center were uncovered under the Biden administration and are at the forefront of Trump’s mass detention and deportation agenda, which includes a massive expansion of the immigration detention system.”

Lawmakers “need to see what’s going on for themselves”

The approaching colder months have highlighted the need for an indoor visitation area. O’Leary and other activists are demanding that New Jersey legislators put pressure on ICE and GEO Group, the private prison contractor that runs Delaney Hall, to add an indoor waiting area. 

Advocates are also seeking to pass the Immigrant Trust Act in New Jersey, which would limit the state’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities and would in turn “would help keep people out of detention,” said O’Leary. 

O’Leary also asks that legislators come down to Delaney Hall in person. 

“They need to see what’s going on for themselves,” O’Leary said. “They need to meet with the visitors and the volunteers. They need to hear the stories of the people who are being detained.”

“Our Democratic legislators like to talk about statistics, what the percentages are, and that kind of stuff. That’s dehumanizing, too,” O’Leary argues. “I’m frustrated with people in power who say that they’re pro-immigrant, but who say, I’m just not going to go to Delaney Hall and visit with people who are suffering because they claim they have no ability to change the situation.”

“I can’t express how frustrated I am with Democrats that are more interested in listening to their paid consultants and they are listening to their neighbors,” O’Leary said.