Newark, New Jersey – Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed charges against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver in a blatant act of political retaliation for joining a congressional delegation intending to conduct an oversight inspection of Delaney Hall. This follows Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) shocking arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka last week for accompanying the congressional delegation.
Delaney Hall is a private immigration detention center that Geo Group is now operating despite sustained community organizing against the facility, ongoing objections from New Jersey’s federal representatives, litigation, and proper city permits. Hundreds of community members gathered last week to support the congressional delegation and Mayor Baraka and the call to shut down Delaney Hall. Geo Group’s plans to reopen the 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.
Delaney Hall has the capacity to detain over 1,000 people—more than quadrupling detention capacity in the state. Delaney Hall is lauded by the Trump administration as the first detention center to open under this presidency, despite New Jersey state law AB5207 that prohibits state and local entities and private companies from entering into agreements with ICE for immigration detention. Earlier this month, New Jersey’s Attorney General’s office defended the law in a federal appeals court. Delaney Hall sits in a highly controversial and contaminated area of Newark and is less than seven miles away from New Jersey’s other ICE detention center in Elizabeth. New Jersey is home to over 2 million immigrants. This latest escalation underscores why New Jersey must pass the “Immigrant Trust Act”—to ensure that local law enforcement and state agencies are not weaponized to funnel immigrants into ICE custody.
Immigrant justice organizations respond to the charges against Rep. McIver:
Amy Torres, Executive Director at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said: “New Jersey may have seized national headlines for the ways our cities, our people, or our public officials have come under attack, but our state stays in the headlines because of the ways in which our leaders and communities are fighting back. Trump’s Department of Justice is charging Rep McIver for doing her job—conducting oversight & demanding answers after a multibillion dollar company set up shop in the middle of the night and then violently arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. This retaliation isn’t about justice–it is about the power and trying to silence a Black woman for using hers. It wouldn’t matter if the conditions in Delaney Hall were worse than Guantanamo or better than the best 5 star luxury hotel in the world. What’s wrong is that this is a system built to violate your rights, built to racially profile and surveil you, built to disappear you without notice or recourse, whether you’re a citizen or a sitting member of Congress. We stand with Rep McIver and the New Jersey Four, because if this administration can come after them, they’ll come after all of us next.”
Charlene D. Walker, Executive Director of Faith in New Jersey, said: “On Malcolm X’s 100th birthday—a day that should call this nation to reckon with truth—the federal government instead chose to charge a Black woman of faith and courage with lies. Congresswoman LaMonica McIver is being punished for standing with her people and exposing the illegal horrors of Delaney Hall, where ICE is disappearing our neighbors. I was there—I saw ICE agents unleash aggression on Members of Congress, faith leaders, and our communities, while shamelessly lying about a sitting mayor. We should not be surprised at the depths this administration will sink to enforce white supremacist violence cloaked in law. As people of faith, we echo Malcolm X: ‘The most disrespected, unprotected, and neglected person in America is the Black woman’—and we will not let them crucify another one.”
Kathy O’Leary, New Jersey Coordinator for Pax Christi USA, said: “Dehumanization plays an essential role in the business model of incarceration for profit and the operations of private prison companies like GEO and CoreCivic. At the behest of a hateful ideology and in service of wealth they hold our brothers, sisters and siblings captive behind walls and barbed wire assuming that we will forget that they are loved by God and by us. Perhaps our leaders and the owners of these places do not understand that we are called to a love that is infinite and everlasting. We are here today to make sure they understand. We are here today to tell them loudly and clearly that what they are doing is evil.”
Nedia Morsy, Director of Make the Road New Jersey and eyewitness to Mayor Baraka’s unlawful arrest, said: “Representative McIver demanded answers regarding the disappearance at Delaney Hall using her Congressional oversight authority. Now she faces federal charges. This is how authoritarianism retaliates against Black women who are grounded in their purpose. Rather than protecting New Jersey residents, the U.S. Justice Department is working to defend billion dollar corporations responsible for separating our families and destroying communities. With this case, Alina Habba is using her position of power to target people of color and testing the limits of authoritarianism in broad daylight. This is a dangerous escalation meant to silence, control, and intimidate. Last week, we stood shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Baraka. And tonight, our fight continues. We demand that the U.S. Department of Justice drop these bogus charges. And, we encourage all of our Representatives across the country to pick up the mantle of Mayor Baraka, Representative McIver, Representative Watson Coleman, and Representative Menendez Jr. to seek accountability for what is happening behind the closed doors of private immigration detention facilities.”
Katy Sastre, Executive Director of First Friends NY/NJ, said: “The charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver are a disgraceful act of political retaliation. She was exercising her oversight authority as an elected official in her own district, standing alongside immigrant communities who are already being demonized and targeted by a violent, unaccountable system. Instead of being respected for doing her job and protecting her constituents, she was assaulted and now faces charges meant to intimidate not just her, but anyone who dares to resist the cruelty of immigration detention. Let’s be clear: this is part of a broader authoritarian playbook. Immigrants are being vilified, peaceful protest is being criminalized, and now a Black woman leader is being punished for refusing to look the other way. Rep. McIver stood up for human dignity and refused to back down — and they’re trying to make an example of her for it. We see exactly what this is — and we’re not backing down either.”
Li Adorno with Movimiento Cosecha New Jersey said: “The core problem here is that Delaney Hall is not supposed to be operating and is in violation of municipal process and state law. The Geo Group and DHS collaboration at Delaney Hall has brought state violence to local residents, religious and community leaders. It’s clear ICE wants to intimidate resistance by targeting everyone protesting Delaney Hall including the Newark City mayor Ras Baraka and now congressman woman LaMonica McIver. We demand the closure of their lawless detention center and the release of family members detained currently being deprived of liberty.”
Stacy Suh, Program Director at Detention Watch Network, said: “We commend Rep. McIver for joining the people of New Jersey to reject Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. These charges are purely an attempt at political intimidation to prevent oversight of ICE detention, a system that is rife with abuse. The Trump administration’s cruel, multi-layered detention expansion plan puts lives in jeopardy and will undoubtedly lead to more tragedies while tearing apart families and costing taxpayers greatly. Trump’s desire to increase the number of people locked up in detention is in deep contrast with the demands of local communities where immigrants are welcomed and valued, like in New Jersey. The reopening of Delaney Hall flies in the face of New Jerseyans’ sustained local organizing, which passed state legislation to phase out the use of immigration detention. It is clear that Trump will use every opportunity to demonize migrants while also undermining what communities want and need.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.