New Jersey’s movement against ICE detention is not going away 

This article New Jersey’s movement against ICE detention is not going away  was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

New Jersey’s newest immigrant detention center, Delaney Hall, sits deep in the arteries of Newark, where shipping containers are stacked on top of each other in every direction. The air smells like sewage and the roads surrounding the center are constantly filled with truckers driving around. None of this has deterred activists from holding daily vigils outside of Delaney Hall. These actions, organized by a seasoned coalition of pro-immigrant rights groups in the state, have now been going for over a month.

By now, the existence of Delaney Hall has become national news following the high-profile arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. While trying to inspect the center, Baraka, along with three members of Congress, found themselves on the receiving end of aggression from federal agents at Delaney Hall. Since then, “trespassing” charges against Baraka have been dropped, but the Trump administration is pursuing charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver, claiming she assaulted a federal agent while they were arresting Baraka.

The news quickly spread across the country, but immigrant rights organizers in New Jersey are highlighting that the story did not begin on May 9, the day of Baraka’s arrest. Nor has it ended.

Activists had been hearing for months that the private prison company GEO Group would be opening a new immigrant detention center in Delaney Hall, a former halfway house that closed in 2017. The center, situated right by several major international airports, has the capacity to hold up to 1,000 people, making it one of the largest immigrant detention centers on the East Coast.

Discussions began to swirl among immigrant rights activists about how to build opposition to the detention center. As plans began to form, one activist, Terri Seuss, a longtime member of the peace group New Jersey Peace Action, felt compelled to act.

“When they announced, suddenly [that] it’s going to open May 1, I thought well I’ve got to get down there,” Seuss said.

A few days before the center opened, Suess went by herself to Delaney Hall with a flyer to give to employees as a “call to conscience,” highlighting how the center is hurting Newark and the surrounding communities. She did this on her own every day that week until May 2, when two other activists joined her.

After the vigil, the three activists went to a diner where they talked about how to bring out even more people.

The following week the vigils continued, this time drawing dozens of activists each day. These mobilizations pulled from an existing coalition of immigrant rights organizations that have been fighting ICE in the state for decades.

New Jersey’s long fight for immigrant rights

Through Delaney Hall, ICE is attempting to expand its presence in a state where activists have been organizing against immigrant detention since 1994, the year New Jersey’s first immigrant jail opened.

The longstanding activism against ICE in New Jersey ballooned during the first Trump administration. At that time, immigrant rights activism was growing across the country in opposition to Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric and promise to build a wall along the southern border.

On the heels of the Black Lives Matter uprising in 2020 many people began to call for abolishing the carceral system. At the same time, immigrants in ICE jails in New Jersey launched a hunger strike against the conditions in detention, and activists on the outside helped amplify their messages. These protests quickly gained popular support and eventually secured significant wins. The state passed a law that banned private prisons, including those designated for ICE detention. Additionally, the state’s three county-run ICE facilities closed under pressure from their communities.

However, in 2023 the movement encountered a setback when the private prison company, CoreCivic, filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban. This lawsuit was backed by the Biden administration, and a federal judge issued a decision to partially overrule the state’s ban. New Jersey’s attorney general appealed the decision, but the partial overruling has already paved the way for GEO Group to move forward with opening Delaney Hall. Meanwhile CoreCivic renewed its contract with another ICE facility, Elizabeth Detention Center.

Li Adorno, a community organizer with the immigrant rights group Cosecha, spoke about the movement’s ebbs and flows while reflecting on these recent experiences.

“There’s moments of a lot of support, and then there’s moments where people start to unplug,” Adorno said. “Right now we’re seeing the administration trying to do a lot of harm, and so people are feeling the need to do something.”

As the attempted build-up of ICE detention in the state has developed, so has the opposition. New Jersey’s attorney general has appealed the court decision in defense of the state law, the city of Newark has filed lawsuits against the reopening of Delaney Hall, and a coalition of immigrant rights organizations is organizing to expand community opposition to ICE. This growing movement is leading the daily vigils outside Delaney Hall.

No end in sight

The vigils — called Eyes on ICE — have grown since the first week of May, bringing in a wide variety of participants and using different tactics and framing to draw attention to the center.

According to Adorno, the second week turned out about 70 people in opposition each day. Groups including Cosecha, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Detention Watch Network and Pax Christi NJ mobilized community members to show up. This was also the week of Baraka’s arrest. In fact, the mayor showed up day after day that week trying to inspect the facility while activists were mobilized outside.

Even after witnessing armed federal agents arrest a mayor in a chaotic scene in which members of Congress tried to shield the mayor, activists returned the next week. That Sunday was Mothers Day so activists made it a point to highlight how ICE takes immigrant mothers away from their families. 

Then on May 13, faith leaders from across the state came to the detention center and, along with the group Resistencia en Accion NJ, they blocked entrances to the facility to keep agents from transporting migrants into the center. The blockade lasted for four hours before Newark Police Department showed up and arrested several participants.

“It was really powerful,” Seuss said. “There must have been 50 faith leaders, clergy. They came in together. They marched up the driveway and positioned themselves in front of the gate.”

The faith leaders’ blockade was the most recent high profile act of resistance to Delaney Hall, but activists are still maintaining a daily presence at the center over two weeks later. In fact, various organizations including immigrant rights groups, the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Newark-based community organization Newark Solidarity Coalition and more are coordinating to take charge of bringing people out on different days.

Activists expressed that along with raising awareness about the facility, having a daily presence allows them to connect with families visiting their loved ones detained at the center. Some of the organizers have brought leaflets written in English and Spanish with information about legal resources, transportation and bond payment support as well as phone numbers to contact.

Several organizers are also working to convince the employees of GEO Group to refuse to work at the facility. They said that they have made moral appeals to the employees, centering the harm they are inflicting on community members. They also highlight the poor conditions of Delaney Hall, which they believe will impact the health of anyone who works in the area regularly.

Activists noted that many truckers in the community support the vigils, and it is common for them to honk in solidarity as they drive by Delaney Hall.

The Eyes On ICE vigils and broader fight against Delaney Hall are still in their early stages, and many activists are still tossing around ideas on how to take the fight to the next level. However they have already succeeded at bringing out support from local workers, several elected officials with large platforms, and community members from Newark and surrounding towns.

The national headlines garnered by New Jersey’s opposition to ICE shows how local fights can galvanize people nationally against immigrant detention. By taking action in Newark, the immigrant rights organizers have already made an impact on the discussion of immigrant detention and how to resist it well beyond New Jersey.

Seuss emphasized that despite the important work of the initial organizers, it is the broader support for immigrant rights that she believes will make a difference.

“This is not one organization or one person or one group,” Seuss said. “This is a movement, and that’s what it’s going to take. Massive amounts of people saying this is wrong.”

This article New Jersey’s movement against ICE detention is not going away  was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/05/new-jersey-movement-against-ice-detention-not-going-away/