Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed ICE detention center on Doremus Avenue in Newark, sits at the center of a federalism fight over who gets to look inside when the federal government has stopped looking itself.

State health inspectors entered Delaney Hall on May 28. Private security staff stopped them at the medical unit. The guards barred them from the sleeping quarters and the bathing and toileting areas, leaving them with only a partial view of the 1,000-bed facility. The federal government says it is fully compliant.

The state Department of Health sent inspectors on May 28, after a detainee turned up at University Hospital with tuberculosis. Detainees had already alleged worms in food and no air conditioning. A doctor at the hospital contacted state health officials and requested a review of infection-control procedures inside the facility. GEO Group, the Florida-based contractor that runs the center, let them into common areas. The state says they were obstructed from the rest.

Two days before the state inspectors arrived, Governor Mikie Sherrill sought access and was denied entry, her office said. She later toured the facility on June 8 under conditions she called "closely controlled and limited."

On June 2, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport asked Essex County Superior Court to enjoin GEO Group from blocking full state access. The complaint argues that the health commissioner can inspect any facility where public health laws may be violated — including privately run detention centers — under N.J.S.A. 26:1A-18, which authorizes examination of any "public or private place of detention," and N.J.S.A. 26:1A-16, which grants "full access to any premises" when a violation is suspected.

The state lawsuit is running parallel to a federal lawsuit against the state. On February 24 the Department of Justice sued Governor Sherrill over Executive Order 12, which bars ICE from nonpublic areas of state property without a judicial warrant. Then-U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi called New Jersey's sanctuary policies unconstitutional. Davenport answered the federal challenge the same day. "We look forward to defending this executive order in court," she said.

Four months later, Senator Cory Booker, Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman and Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York have introduced a bill that would bar DHS from using any appropriated funds to block a governor or designated state official from inspecting immigration detention facilities. The measure has no Republican co-sponsors and has not received a committee hearing. Without Republican support, its path to enactment as standalone law is unclear.

City Sued to Keep the Building Closed

Newark officials have argued since last spring that the building should not be open at all. Mayor Ras Baraka sued GEO Group over permit issues including ungrounded electrical outlets and a new entry gate lacking proper electrical permits. The company has countered that the mayor is politicizing the issue and that the facility employs hundreds of unionized workers at an average annual salary of $105,000. The city's lawsuit cited building and electrical permit violations; separate fire safety inspection records filed in the case showed no problems with extinguishers or exit signs.

Federal agents arrested Baraka outside the facility on May 9, 2025, during his unsuccessful run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Federal prosecutors dropped his trespassing charge less than two weeks later after U.S. Magistrate Judge André Espinosa admonished the U.S. Attorney's Office for what he called a "hasty arrest" and "embarrassing retraction." 

GEO Group has accused Baraka of politicizing the issue and called his actions a "publicity stunt" to advance a "political agenda," while Baraka has countered that the dispute is "not just… a code enforcement dispute" but "a dispute about human lives."

A federal grand jury later indicted Representative LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) on three counts of assaulting a federal officer during the May 9 incident outside the facility's gates. She has pleaded not guilty and filed an appeal seeking dismissal on legislative immunity grounds. Judge Semper scheduled her trial for November 10, 2025, but adjourned it that same week pending resolution of pretrial motions. McIver faces a maximum of 17 years in prison if convicted on all counts: eight years for each of the first two counts and one year for the third, according to federal prosecutors.

DHS Eliminated Its Own Watchdogs

The inspection failure came more than a year after the DHS eliminated nearly all positions in its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and its Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman on March 21, 2025. By December the detention ombudsman had dropped from 118 employees to five, according to a report from the human rights advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America. Congressional appropriators then proposed zeroing out the ombudsman budget entirely for 2026.

With the federal government's own inspection capacity collapsed, Booker's June 12 bill would use the appropriations process as its mechanism. It would bar DHS from spending any money to block governors or their designated public health and safety officials from conducting inspections. Inspectors would gain access to all areas, the right to speak privately with detainees, the authority to review records and the ability to document conditions through photography. DHS would have to respond in writing within 60 days to any governor-submitted inspection report sent to Congress, spelling out what corrective actions it had taken or planned to fix the problems identified.

Booker has pursued this issue before. During his 2019 presidential campaign he proposed phasing out private immigration detention over three years through executive action, according to his campaign plan and Washington Post coverage. In January 2026 he reintroduced the broader Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act with Representative Rob Menendez (NJ-08) and others. The June 12 bill does not ban private detention. It demands that someone be allowed to look inside. The narrower scope marks a departure from Booker's 2019 platform, which sought to eliminate the industry entirely.

The inspection gap is not theoretical. On December 12, 2025, a 41-year-old Haitian national named Jean Wilson Brutus died at Delaney Hall one day after ICE transferred him into custody there. The agency waited a week to disclose the death publicly. ICE attributed the death to a medical emergency and suspected natural causes, but his family disputes the finding and commissioned a private autopsy. Advocates and detainees have alleged that GEO Group employees delayed an ambulance at the facility gate for nearly five minutes while processing a van of new arrivals. The death prompted Booker, McIver and Watson Coleman to demand the facility's immediate closure.

DHS Called the Allegations Smears

The DHS press office has pushed back. On May 25 the department issued a release calling the Delaney Hall allegations "smears" by "New Jersey sanctuary politicians" seeking "fundraising clicks." The release stated in capital letters that there was "NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall" and "NO subprime conditions or abuse." It noted that detainees get three meals daily reviewed by certified dietitians, plus clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, toiletries and phone access. Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Lauren Bis said ICE detention standards "exceed those at most U.S. prisons."

The detainee population at Delaney Hall has its own documented history. Roughly 300 detainees launched a hunger and labor strike around May 22, according to family members and advocates at the time. They alleged live worms in food, crowded rooms without air conditioning and water that detainees described as disgusting. They said guards denied them medications and pressured them to abandon their legal cases. The detainees reported that guards cut phone and tablet access after the strike began. DHS called the strike nonexistent. Senator Kim and Representative Menendez reported after a May 23 visit that a pregnant woman had been denied full OB-GYN care and that another woman had miscarried without receiving care.

At a congressional hearing in early June, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin refused to commit to giving New Jersey health inspectors full access to Delaney Hall. "They don't always have unfettered access to the detention center," Mullin said. "There is a difference between federal facilities … and federal privatized systems," he added, saying he would give access when required by law.

The Republican response has been equally forceful and sharply divergent from Democratic accounts. Representative Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02) visited Delaney Hall on June 1 and praised the facility's libraries, outdoor soccer field and gym. He told reporters it was "a better gym than the one I go to" and described the center as clean. His official press release stated the facility has "doctors, nurses and dentists providing medical care" and that "the conditions I saw today are better than what you see in some nursing homes." He described detainees as "illegal immigrants with criminal histories involving drug trafficking, weapons charges, assault, fraud, money laundering, cocaine distribution and other serious offenses."

On June 9 he sent a letter to Governor Sherrill calling for State Police to return to the facility to "restore order," describing protests there as "more like anarchy than peaceful protests." No Republican in New Jersey's congressional delegation had publicly commented on the Booker-Espaillat bill as of June 15.

ICE Fired Pepper Spray at Protesters

The protests outside the facility have drawn their own congressional casualties. On June 1 ICE agents in riot gear fired pepper balls and mace to clear demonstrators. DHS stated that pepper ball projectiles did not hit anyone directly and that officers used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property. Senator Andy Kim told reporters he was hit with pepper spray and a tear gas canister while attempting to de-escalate tensions. A curfew Baraka had imposed on May 30 remained in effect that night.

GEO Group's financial position suggests it is positioned to expand regardless of the Newark dispute. The firm reported $2.63 billion in total revenue for 2025 with net income of $120.1 million. Executives have told investors it can provide 6,000 additional beds in former federal prisons and is "cautiously participating" in ICE's plan to convert commercial warehouses into detention centers. 

Its government ties have tightened further: David Venturella, a former GEO Group executive who worked for the company for roughly a decade starting in 2012, became acting ICE director effective June 1, 2026. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked Venturella whether he will recuse himself from matters that could benefit GEO Group. DHS stated he "abides by all ethics requirements." White House Border Czar Tom Homan also previously worked for GEO Group.

Booker introduced the bill June 12 and no committee has scheduled a hearing. The state's lawsuit against GEO Group is pending in Essex County Superior Court. The Department of Justice lawsuit against New Jersey is pending in federal court. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has called for the facility's immediate closure. Governor Sherrill has sued to get inside. Senator Booker has introduced legislation to make sure she can. And the federal agency that runs the immigration system has effectively stopped inspecting itself.

The state wants to look inside and the senator wants to pass a law to guarantee it. GEO Group and DHS say they already grant access where appropriate. And the federal agency that is supposed to look inside fired the people whose job it was to look.

Related Articles

• Sherrill Denied Access to Delaney Hall: Inside NJ's Escalating War Over ICE Detention

• Breaking: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Arrested During Protest at ICE Detention Center

• Sherrill: Trump ICE Plan for Newark Airport Skirts Federal Law, Agents Lack Training

• State Police Tear-Gas, Charge Crowd on Horseback at Newark ICE Facility

Sources

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