One prisoner at Delaney Hall, the immigrant detention center in Newark, did not receive her dose of medication for three or four days. And when her husband drove the long distance from Connecticut to visit her — he was turned away.
Other detainees reported not being fed for more than 20 hours — including no meals at all between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
And the families of some detainees have described the conditions inside the building as “pretty awful.”
The public has seen what’s been happening the past few months outside Delaney Hall: Protests, rallies and the arrests of lawmakers. But what is going on inside? What is it like for loved ones of detainees trying to get inside to see them?
The public got a glimpse of conditions in the detention facility when, on the evening of June 12, a riot was reported inside Delaney Hall after detainees protested over what they said was insufficient food and other conditions, according to several immigration rights groups.
Past history: Newark detention center unrest by detainees over inadequate food, say advocates
The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice posted on X that evening, “Vans barrel past protesters into the street at Delaney Hall, where people in detention were protesting insufficient lunch after a 20 hr period of NO food.”
Reports indicated that inmates in the federal detention facility joined forces to push down the wall of a unit after meals were delivered late.
Unconfirmed reports that several people had escaped from the facility turned out to be confirmed when the Department of Homeland Security announced the next day that four detainees escaped, three of whom were apprehended in the four days after the riot while a $25,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of the remaining detainee.
U.S. Congress members from New Jersey, Rep. Rob Menendez, and Senator Andy Kim, toured the facility on June 13 and met with ICE officials. Kim, in a press conference outside Delaney Hall, said that the interior was inferior, as the escapees made their getaway by breaking through a wall made of drywall and mesh.
“That doesn’t sound secure to anybody. That was leading to an exterior wall. So, they dropped into the parking lot there and escaped over the fence,” Kim reported what he was told by Delaney Hall officials. He also said officials told him the facility was “not secure.” The facility was closed to visitors after the uprising for a security review, and detainees were being transferred out, according to reports.
What is Delaney Hall?
The 1,196-bed Delaney Hall is the first immigrant detention center to open during the second term of President Donald Trump, during which the president has vowed to deport at least 11 million undocumented immigrants. In February, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency awarded GEO Group a contract to hold migrants facing deportation at Delaney Hall. In May, the detention center opened.
Before it opened on May 1, the building had been vacant since 2023, when it served for several years as a drug treatment center and halfway house. From 2011 to 2017, the facility housed immigration detainees.
Detainees are usually asylum seekers, others waiting for immigration cases to be resolved, and those who have incurred criminal violations.
Delaney Hall, according to data from the DHS, has an average daily population of 25 people. As of June 7, there were 23 males and two females, with 16 of the male detainees classified as “non-criminal,” and the two female detainees were both non-criminal. But no exact numbers were provided for the current population.
Since the beginning of May, politicians have been accosted and arrested by federal agents. Immigrant advocates are protesting and holding vigils against the center being open.
Advocates have been fighting against its opening and its continued operation because they feel it will give ICE an incentive to target immigrants who have not committed any crimes so they can be detained while prison companies like GEO Group profit from their detention.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested in front of Delaney Hall on May 9, has targeted the facility as a symbol of the Trump administration’s immigration policy for months and has taken issue that the building, refurbished to accommodate detainees, had not fulfilled the appropriate certificate of occupancy permits. Homeland Security says those allegations are false.
While charges were dropped against Baraka, new ones were made against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, who was indicted in connection with her presence at the same May 9 visit to Delaney Hall where the Newark mayor was arrested.
Not good inside or outside
People gather in opposition to ICE on Tuesday, Mar. 11, 2025, after ICE released a statement last week announcing the opening of Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ as a detention center.
Kathy O’Leary, regional coordinator for Pax Christi New Jersey, was standing outside Delaney Hall on June 5, a warmer-than-usual late spring day.
She was getting ready for a solidarity rally organized by immigrant advocates and pro-Palestinian supporters to bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia, the Paterson woman being held in a Texas detention facility, and to the situation of the detainees in the building behind her.
That’s when she recalled in an interview with NorthJersey.com the situation of a woman from Connecticut detained there, and the impact it had on her family traveling a long way to see her.
“Her husband drove all the way from Connecticut with their daughter, who has special needs. They were assuming the visiting hours were the same as the week before, so they showed up and there’s no visiting hours. They get turned away,” O’Leary said.
The abrupt decision by Delaney Hall personnel only compounded the woman’s misery as O’Leary found out.
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“He shared with us that [his wife] did not receive her medication for three, four days while she is there,” O’Leary said.
Immigrant advocate O’Leary confirmed for NorthJersey.com some of the conditions at Delaney Hall that led to the June 12 disturbance, saying: “Everybody is telling us that the food is horrible. But then we’re also hearing that people are only getting two meals a day. They’re being fed early in the morning, and then they might not get dinner until 10 o’clock at night.”
Jenny Garcia, a New Jersey-based communications associate for Detention Watch Network, a national coalition focused on abolishing immigration detention in the United States, was outside the facility on June 8, where she said 60 people were being denied access to see family members.
“They traveled from their homes to see their person, and they’re not being allowed inside,” Garcia said. “It’s just heartbreaking and it’s very systematic.”
Garcia said some of the people came as far as Connecticut and Massachusetts. She said that the blame for the denial of access lies in the “arbitrary” rules for visitation, including the changing of visiting hours on the day of the visit.
The city of Newark has a lawsuit pending in federal court ordering the GEO Group to “cease occupancy [and] construction, and permit entry for inspection” of Delaney Hall, as city officials at a visit on March 31 said they observed “electrical work” and “plumbing work” had been done in a new annex structure for the facility built in the parking lot, both requiring a permit.
Baraka said in a statement posted on X on June 14 that the upheaval at Delaney Hall vindicates his legal actions.
“The chaotic outcome is precisely why the city has ordinances requiring all facilities, including this ICE facility, to apply for the proper permits … and why we have taken the GEO Group to court to ensure the safety of both detainees and their own employees,” Baraka said.
Both Homeland Security and GEO Group, in emails to NorthJersey.com about the situation, tried to downplay what took place while highlighting the virtues of the facility with the same statement:
“Contrary to current reporting, there has been no widespread unrest at the Facility. We remain dedicated to providing high-quality services to those in our care, including around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietitian-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs.”
Questions by NorthJersey.com by email to Homeland Security about the operation, staffing, and food service at the center were not answered. Both Homeland Security and the GEO Group did not respond immediately to questions about the number of detainees and where they were relocated.
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter/X: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Delaney Hall history: Poor conditions plague Newark ICE facility