Staff at Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains individuals, report ongoing harassment and property damage from protestors demanding ICE’s abolition, who have gathered outside the facility for several months.
In an open letter to the public, Delaney Hall employees expressed that their jobs have become increasingly challenging due to ongoing confrontations with anti-ICE demonstrators. They indicated that such situations have disrupted their work and put them at risk.
“We are the men and women who work at Delaney Hall—nurses, case managers, food service workers, maintenance staff, and security personnel,” the employees explained. “We live in Newark and nearby areas, coming to work each day to care for those in our facility. We felt our viewpoint has been largely missing from discussions surrounding this place.”
They elaborated:
In recent weeks, protests outside Delaney Hall have turned more aggressive. We have been confronted, filmed, and verbally attacked while starting and ending our shifts. Some demonstrators have tried to obstruct vehicles going in and out, resulting in damage to personal cars. The confrontations have escalated to the point where local authorities had to impose a curfew in the vicinity. We appreciate that strong opinions exist regarding immigration policies. However, we are not the ones making those policies; we are simply employees trying to maintain our safety at work, which is increasingly jeopardized by these threats. [Emphasis added]
…
Our duty is to deliver safe, professional, and humane care to detainees, and we take this responsibility seriously. Maintaining the safety and well-being of both detainees and ourselves is our main concern. The turmoil outside does not enhance the security of those within. [Emphasis added]
During a hearing on detention centers on Wednesday, Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee raised multiple allegations regarding conditions for detainees, claiming they are poor and inhumane.
“Detainees face inadequate ventilation, cold winter temperatures, excessively hot showers, physical mistreatment by guards, and shortages of vital supplies,” stated Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “The medical conditions of detainees are alarming.”
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) countered these assertions, noting in June that conditions in New Jersey state prisons are considerably more perilous than those at Delaney Hall.
DHS representatives reported that inmates in New Jersey prisons are twice as likely to die compared to those at Delaney Hall, which also employs twice the medical staff found in state prisons.
From 2018 to 2024, over 330 inmates lost their lives in New Jersey prisons, with 42 fatalities occurring just in 2024. This translates to an average of more than 40 deaths annually in these facilities, according to DHS officials.
