Newark sues to bar reopening of ICE detention facility at Delaney Hall

The City of Newark, alleging a host of “irresponsible” practices by the project contractor, has asked a state judge to halt construction and bar the reopening of the Delaney Hall detention facility for immigrants facing deportation.

The Baraka administration, in a complaint filed Monday in Essex County, alleges security guards and onsite staff at Delaney Hall barred city officials from entering the facility at 451 Doremus Ave. for required inspections, in violation of city and state law. The GEO Group, the contractor hired to run the site for the federal government, hasn’t applied for required city approvals, including construction permits and certificates of occupancy, and also performed “substandard” work, according to the complaint. The city asked the court to bar GEO Group from housing detainees pending city fire, health and safety inspections and approvals.

"Without compliance with requirements, Delaney Hall cannot lawfully open," Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement. "We will not tolerate federal attempts to ignore or evade our laws and statutes, which apply to everyone."

Christopher Ferreira, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, in a statement called the lawsuit “another unfortunate example of a politicized campaign by sanctuary city and open borders politicians in New Jersey to interfere with the federal government’s efforts to arrest, detain and deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens in accordance with established federal law.”

The dispute unfolds as the Trump administration, which was not named as a defendant in the city’s complaint, has sought to ramp up deportations nationwide, while contending with a shortage of detention beds for those facing deportation.

The 1,000-bed detention facility is slated to be one of the largest U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers in the Northeast and would double immigration detention capacity for New York and New Jersey.

Spokespeople for ICE did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.

ICE announced the re-opening of the Delaney Hall facility, the first immigration detention center to open in Trump’s second presidential term, in late February.

Ferreira said the reopening will create hundreds of unionized jobs, with an average annual salary of $105,000, and it is expected to contribute $50 million to the local economy.

The GEO Group previously operated the Delaney Hall site as an ICE detention facility for six years, from 2011 to 2017. And ICE has been planning a facility in Newark for years, long before Trump returned to office. ICE solicited applications for an immigration detention center contract near Newark last summer.

The city’s complaint alleges electrical, plumbing and construction work have all been conducted on the site without required permits. The Department of Engineering issued its own stop work order on Monday, according to Baraka.

The GEO Group was awarded a $1.2 billion contract to operate the facility for 15 years, according to the federal government’s contracting database. The company owns the site and will provide security, maintenance, food service, medical care and legal counsel, business leaders said in the company’s quarterly earnings call in February.

The site is expected to generate $60 million in revenue in its first year of operations, the company said.

ICE currently has three detention centers in New York: a site in Buffalo as well as the Orange and Clinton county jails. Together, those sites house about 620 detainees, according to the latest agency data. Another detention center, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, currently houses about 270 people.