ICE plans major expansion of detention center in New Jersey

NEW JERSEY – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could add up to 600 more beds to house immigrant detainees in New Jersey, records show.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York sought documents in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, noting that ICE is seeking more detention space at at least two facilities: the 300-bed Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility and the 1,000-bed Albert M. “Bo” Robinson Center (ARC) in Trenton.

Both are currently operated by private prison companies: CoreCivic and The GEO Group, respectively.

This news comes as President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to order mass deportations when he takes office again next year. However, the number of people in detention has more than tripled since President Joe Biden took office, Eric Cruz Morales of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice told NJ Spotlight.

The ACLU of New Jersey has raised concerns about the current administration’s plans to expand immigrant prisons in the state, and attorney Eunice Cho said Biden’s administration must close the facilities now.

The two facilities ICE is considering have a history of reportedly poor conditions, the ACLU added – the property owner of the Elizabeth Detention Center sued CoreCivic in 2021, saying the company failed to meet basic safety and sanitation requirements, and the ARC was the subject of a 2012 New York Times article that exposed sexual assaults, robberies and other incidents at the facility.

“Rather than closing abusive detention centers once and for all, the Biden administration is simply paving the way for the new Trump administration to carry out mass incarceration and deportation of immigrant communities nationwide,” said Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. said in a statement.

Records also show GEO Group plans to do so secure a contract to house up to 600 inmates at Delaney Hall in Newark, Patch previously reported.

Under a 2021 state law, all prisons in the state — whether public or private — are prohibited from entering into new contracts with ICE to house federal detainees. Prisons also cannot extend or renew old agreements. But since then, both CoreCivic and GEO Group have challenged the law in court, and a judge ruled in 2023 that CoreCivic could keep its prison in Elizabeth open.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who represents Trenton, said it was “angry” that the city was being used “as a site for mass deportations.”

“This proposal is unacceptable and contrary to New Jersey’s values,” she said in a statement. “I reject it and call on community leaders, the governor and President Biden to reject it and get to work creating a fair immigration process that respects all families.”

According to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, about 440,000 undocumented people live in the Garden State.