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Delaney Hall — Newark NJ GEO Group ICE Facility

Essex, NJ FIPS 34013
1,000
Bed capacity
Operator: GEO Group

Overview

Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey is a 1,000-bed GEO Group-operated ICE detention center — the largest on the East Coast. Located next to the Essex County jail along an industrial stretch of Newark Bay, it was reactivated after previously operating as a detention center until 2017.

It opened May 1, 2025 as the first new ICE detention center of the Trump second term, under a 15-year contract worth approximately $60 million annually. It typically houses 900+ detainees on any given day.

Key Events Timeline

DateEvent
Feb 27, 2025ICE announces 15-year GEO Group contract
April 1, 2025Newark sues — GEO renovated without city permits, barred inspectors
April 10, 2025GEO moves case to federal court, claims sovereign immunity
May 1, 2025Facility opens despite pending lawsuit, no certificate of occupancy
May 6, 2025GEO denies city fire inspectors entry; fire code violation issued
May 9, 2025Mayor Ras Baraka arrested during congressional oversight visit
June 2025Rep. LaMonica McIver indicted for assaulting federal officials
June 12, 20254 detainees escape through sheetrock wall after conditions protest
July 18, 2025Final escapee recaptured
Oct 2025Continued abuse/neglect reports; conditions investigation
Dec 12, 2025Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, dies within 24 hours of entering custody
Dec 2025Families waiting in freezing cold for holiday visits
Jan 2026Civil rights attorneys launch independent death investigation
May 22, 2026~300 detainees launch hunger + labor strike over spoiled/maggot-infested food, crowded cells (12-16 per room), self-deportation pressure
May 24-25, 2026Solidarity protests; ICE blocks back-gate road ~1 a.m., fires pepper balls/mace, uses batons; transfers strike leader Martin Soto Hernandez (Peruvian) to Elizabeth, places him in isolation
May 25, 2026Gov. Sherrill denied entry (no federal oversight authority); Rep. Rob Menendez waits 12+ hours for oversight access
May 25, 2026Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) pepper-sprayed by federal agents while trying to defuse the crowd
May 26-27, 2026DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin denies a strike is happening, calls visits a “political stunt,” says detainees refusing food over “ethnic right food” can “go back to their country”; blames Kim for being sprayed
May 28, 2026NJ Dept. of Health gets only a limited inspection — DOH inspectors allowed inside but barred from the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathing/toileting areas; GEO says ICE must authorize fuller access, ICE denies it
May 29, 2026DHS issues “Correct the Record” release calling sanctuary-politician claims “smears”; cites an Aug 2025 DHS OPR inspection that found Delaney Hall met 17 of 22 standards (5 deficiencies: freezer ice, fingerprinting gaps, holding-room docs, cleaning-equipment labeling, monitoring protocols)
June 1, 2026Strike continues into day 11; detainee demands now explicitly include release of medically vulnerable/elderly/pregnant/young detainees, immigration-judge case review, federal habeas review, and an end to voluntary-departure pressure
June 2, 2026NJ AG Davenport + Gov. Sherrill sue GEO Group in Essex County Superior Court seeking an expedited injunction for full DOH inspection access; Mayor Baraka announces Newark will expand its 2025 suit to seek the facility’s closure if inspectors are not given full access; Baraka imposes a 9 p.m.–6 a.m. curfew within a half-mile of Delaney Hall after protests turned violent (fires, clashes)
June 2-3, 202661 protesters arrested (failure to disperse, curfew violations, resisting); DHS says protesters bit officers; Baraka transfers protest policing from NJ State Police back to Newark PD, calling prior tactics “aggressive, unnecessary, and in some cases unconstitutional”
June 3, 2026Baraka lifts the curfew after a protest with no arrests; Human Rights Watch publishes findings backing strikers’ allegations and citing a 1,373% jump in voluntary departures in NY/NJ immigration courts (July–Oct 2025 vs. prior year); DHS calls the NJ lawsuit “frivolous”

Documented Conditions

  • Meals at random hours; long stretches without food
  • Metallic, undrinkable water
  • Spoiled, inedible food
  • Problems with prescription drug distribution
  • Erratic visiting schedule; 1+ hour outdoor waits
  • Hostile, retaliatory guards who goad detainees into fights
  • Overcrowding

Financial Context

GEO Group reported $254 million in profit in 2025 (a 700% increase over 2024) and projects **$3 billion in 2026 revenue**. Delaney Hall is one of four GEO facilities reactivated in 2025, together adding approximately 6,000 beds to GEO’s ICE capacity (from ~20,000 to ~26,000 beds).

Political Impact

  • Mayor Baraka (running for NJ governor) became a national figure after his arrest
  • Sen. Cory Booker introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act after touring Delaney Hall
  • Rep. McIver indicted for confrontation during oversight — she called it “political intimidation”
  • Newark’s legal theory (city permits/inspections required for private facilities) is being tested in federal court

May 2026 Hunger Strike and Crackdown

On May 22, 2026 roughly 300 detainees at Delaney Hall began a coordinated hunger and labor strike to protest conditions: spoiled food that detainees and Rep. Jerry Nadler said “very often” contained maggots, Tylenol as the only medication, crowded cells holding 12-16 people, filthy bathrooms, and pressure to self-deport. Detainees phoned families to describe conditions until guards cut access to phones and tablets.

Solidarity protests outside the facility escalated. Around 1 a.m. Monday May 25, ICE agents blocked the back-gate road and cleared protesters by force — firing pepper balls and mace, using batons and gas canisters, and shoving people against parked cars. ICE said it “dispersed approximately 70 agitators.” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) was pepper-sprayed while attempting to defuse the crowd; DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin publicly said Kim deserved it and blamed him for the confrontation.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill was denied entry (DHS asserted she lacks federal oversight authority, unlike members of Congress); Rep. Rob Menendez waited 12+ hours for an oversight visit. ICE transferred hunger-strike leader Martin Soto Hernandez (a Peruvian detained at Delaney Hall since February) to the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, where his attorneys say he was placed in isolation and denied phone calls. Mullin denied any strike was occurring and called the official visits a “political stunt.”

Why it matters: the strike is the largest organized detainee action at the East Coast’s biggest ICE facility, and the pepper-spraying of a sitting U.S. senator marks a sharp escalation in federal-state confrontation at Delaney Hall — echoing the May 2025 arrest of Mayor Baraka one year earlier.

June 2026 Escalation: Dueling Lawsuits, Curfew, HRW Report

The strike did not resolve and ran into June (day 11+). It evolved from a conditions protest into an explicit legal-process demand: strikers are now calling for release of medically vulnerable, elderly, pregnant, and young detainees; meaningful immigration-judge case review; federal habeas review; and an end to coercion to sign voluntary-departure/deportation documents. This ties the strike directly to the unresolved Third Circuit bond question — NJ is in the Third Circuit, where the bond-eligibility appeal was argued May 11, 2026 but remains undecided (see bond-hearing-circuit-split-2026).

On May 28, the NJ Department of Health was let in for only a partial inspection — barred from the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathing/toileting areas — because GEO said ICE had to authorize fuller access and ICE declined. On June 2, NJ AG Jennifer Davenport and Gov. Mikie Sherrill sued GEO Group in Essex County Superior Court for an expedited injunction granting DOH full inspection access, while Mayor Ras Baraka announced Newark would expand its existing 2025 permits suit to seek the facility’s closure. DHS called the state suit “frivolous,” pointing to an August 2025 DHS OPR inspection that found the facility compliant with 17 of 22 standards (5 deficiencies) and a May 28 kitchen check it says found no issues.

Protests turned violent (fires, clashes), prompting Baraka to impose a 9 p.m.–6 a.m. curfew within a half-mile of Delaney Hall. 61 people were arrested over June 2-3; Baraka then moved policing from NJ State Police back to Newark PD (citing “aggressive, unnecessary, and in some cases unconstitutional” tactics) and lifted the curfew June 3 after an arrest-free protest. That same day Human Rights Watch corroborated strikers’ allegations and cited a 1,373% increase in voluntary departures in NY/NJ immigration courts (July–Oct 2025 vs. prior year) as evidence of systemic deportation pressure.

Why it matters: NJ now has two converging state/local suits against GEO — one for inspection access (state) and an expanding one for closure (Newark) — testing whether a state can compel health inspection of a federally contracted private ICE facility. The strikers’ pivot to habeas/bond demands links the East Coast’s largest ICE facility to the live Third Circuit bond fight.

Sources

Edit Report issue County profile
Last updated: Jul 3, 2026