A Florida company that wants to open a new immigration detention center in Newark is suing to overturn New Jersey’s ban on the facility, arguing the policy is unconstitutional. are doing.
GEO Group says in its lawsuit that the state ban has jeopardized its plans for Delaney Hall, a privately run 1,196-bed facility that has housed a variety of county, state and federal detainees for the past 25 years. He said there was.
That could cost GEO a significant amount of money, including contracts worth more than $100 million with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the complaint says.
Lawyers for the group argue that the state has no right to pass the law because it violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The section provides that federal law generally takes precedence over state laws that conflict therewith.
“[The law] “Undermining and impeding the implementation and enforcement of immigration laws funded and authorized by Congress within the State of New Jersey,” the lawsuit said.
“[The law] Therefore, it conflicts with federal immigration law, frustrates the purpose behind federal immigration law, seriously impairs the purpose of Congress in enacting federal immigration law, intrudes on federal immigration law, and trespasses on territory explicitly designated by Congress. It would be an unfair intrusion. The intention is to occupy the entire field. ”
Garden State Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matthew Platkin were named as defendants in the lawsuit filed April 15 in federal court in Trenton.
Murphy’s office did not respond to requests for comment, and representatives for ICE and the attorney general also declined to comment.
New Jersey has a checkered history with immigrant detention centers, which cost Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties tens of millions of dollars before Murphy signed the ban in August 2021. According to the NJ Monitor.
Years earlier, immigration advocates were shaming Democratic-run counties for their conservative immigration policies while simultaneously making money off the backs of the people they imprisoned.
A federal judge declared the law partially unconstitutional last year after another private company, CoreCivic, challenged it on similar grounds, according to the complaint.
The same judge who heard the case, District Judge Robert Kirsch, will hear GEO’s appeal.
“GEO seeks similar relief in this action,” the attorneys wrote.
According to the complaint, GEO currently has contracts with ICE to operate more than 20 different facilities across the United States, totaling approximately 19,000 beds.
But for-profit prison companies have been subject to numerous abuse allegations over the years, according to media reports.
Last August, protesters in San Francisco demanded an end to what they called “the ongoing mistreatment of ICE detainees.” According to CBS News.
“Detainees awaiting deportation proceedings report experiencing violence, medical neglect, sexual abuse, malnutrition, and generally poor living conditions,” CBS said. Ta. “Detainees say that when they report concerns to ICE, they are ignored and often face retaliation.”
Other complaints and lawsuits against the company have been similarly shocking.
GEO denies all allegations and said in a statement that all ICE processing centers provide “24-hour access to medical care” of any kind.
The system also provides detainees with legal and religious services, recreational activities and three “high-quality daily meals based on ICE and registered dietitian-approved menus,” according to a spokesperson. It is said that there is.
“We take our role as a service provider to the federal government with the utmost seriousness and strive to treat all those entrusted to our care with dignity and respect,” the statement said. Ta. “GEO has a long-standing commitment to respecting the human rights of the individuals in our care and to ethical practices in all aspects of our services.”
In New Jersey, GEO already owns Delaney Hall. It’s an intimidating prison surrounded by fences and barbed wire, perched on a narrow strip of land between the New Jersey Turnpike and the waters of Newark Bay.
From 2011 to 2017, the facility housed up to 450 immigrant detainees, including people from states such as Texas and Louisiana.
Last May, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a request for information to identify possible holding sites for undocumented immigrants under the control of ICE’s Newark field office.
GEO proposed using Delaney and says it has spent millions of dollars upgrading it to comply with federal standards.
“GEO has a realistic chance of obtaining a contract from ICE to provide immigration detention services at the Delaney Hall facility,” the attorneys wrote. “However, regarding its effectiveness, [the law]”
