NEWARK, NJ–The immigration detention center, Delaney Hall, located at 451 Doremus Ave. in Newark, NJ, sits on top of a toxic waste dump, one of the most toxic land sites in the country. The Essex County Correctional Facility, located at 354 Doremus Ave., occupies the same grounds as Delaney Hall and is right next door.
The stench from this area is so strong that one can smell it from several blocks away. Some call the area the Sacrifice Zone. Others call it Newark’s Chemical Corridor. But at any rate, it sits among a hazardous waste site that has been used for decades to illegally dump poisonous materials onto the grounds and into the air.
Various pollutants at the site that have seeped into the ground and air are hazardous substances such as PCBs, benzene, toluene, xylenes, TCE, PCE, naphthalene, arsenic, lead and mercury. But even more egregious is that these prisons are relatively new facilities, and that in the late 1990s, the State knowingly chose to build the Essex County Correctional Facility and to turn an old warehouse on the property into Delaney Hall. They built this on land that regulators had known for decades to be extremely contaminated.
Any discussion of Delaney Hall must always begin with the fact that the State deliberately has incarceration facilities sitting on contaminated toxic waste dumps that are classified as some of the most dangerous in the country and rank in the nation’s 84th national percentile for exposure to carcinogens and other illnesses.
In 2000, when Delaney Hall first opened (the Essex County Correctional Facility would later open in 2005), it was operated by the Community Education Centers (CEC) Group, which presented itself as a facility for integrating incarcerated people back into society, and it was used to house various federal, state and county detainees.
But from 2011 to 2017, due to the increased deportation activities under the Obama administration, it was converted into a high-capacity Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center because of its proximity to Newark International Airport. It was during that time that the GEO Group took over its operations. From 2017 to 2023, it was used as a drug rehabilitation center and halfway house.
However, in 2021, immigration rights advocates, who for decades have been advocating for the closure of immigration detention centers, scored a huge victory when New Jersey passed Bill A5207 Aca (1R), prohibiting the use of privately run facilities and state jails from being used as ICE detention centers.
CoreCivic, a private business operating an ICE detention facility in Elizabeth, NJ, challenged the legislation and won. This challenge was strongly supported by the Biden Administration, which did a complete reversal on what it had campaigned on previously.
In 2024, GEO Group campaigned to secure a contract to run ICE facilities at Delaney Hall, and in 2025 it reached a $1 billion deal with the Trump administration to operate it as an ICE facility for the next 15 years. Its capacity has increased from 450 to 1,000 beds.
This brings us to the hunger strike and protests that are currently happening now. For over a year, activists and family members of those kidnapped by ICE have been holding vigils outside of Delaney Hall, while reports of abuse inside have continued to escalate. On December 12, 2025, Haitian asylum seeker Jean Wilson Brutus died within 24 hours of being snatched off the streets and taken to Delaney Hall.
There have long been reports of contaminated food with maggots, inadequate medical care, contaminated water, abuse of detainees and related mistreatment. Many were forced to work for $1.60 a day. On Friday, May 22, 2026, the detainees, no longer able to tolerate the abuse, put out a clarion call to the broader community for support and went on a hunger and labor strike.
People began to gather from all over the area, participating in the 24-hour vigils in front of Delaney Hall, to support the demands of those brutally detained. These demands are very clear, and the detainees want it understood that they are NOT striking for better conditions; they are striking to demand freedom. The demands are:
- A meeting with the governor, Mikie Sherrill (a Democrat who is an AIPAC Zionist)
- The immediate release of the medically vulnerable
- The immediate release of elderly, pregnant, and young detainees
- Meaningful review of immigration and habeas filings
- An end to coercive pressure to voluntarily self-deport
- And FREEDOM
On May 25, Sherrill gave the façade of trying to enter the facilities and being denied entry. But the governor has a reputation of speaking with a forked tongue and putting out statements that DO NOT reflect her actions, as in a May 25 press release she issued describing the incident. Her actions tell a completely different story.
And while ICE agents had been in front of the facilities and responded aggressively toward the protestors (i.e., hitting and pushing some) who had been peacefully protesting, on Friday, May 29, the governor unleashed a paramilitary force on the protestors, and the State police brutally responded with riot gear, batons, flash-bang grenades, horses, etc. and sprayed the crowd with rubber bullets. Over 63 people were arrested.
Eyewitness videos of what happened abound. Here are several eyewitness accounts from people who have been on the ground participating in the vigils.
Archange Antoine: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18t51mgoBP
Kason Little: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AxK2mXgEK/
Charlene Walker: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FGvLKu7gM/
Newark mayor, Ras Baraka, immediately implemented a curfew, which had the effect of justifying the brutal use of force by the governor, although after much pushback, he reversed the curfew. And while he has been quick to condemn the actions of ICE agents and even criticized some of the actions of the Newark police, his response to the governor, someone he endorsed, has been tepid, to say the least.
As the governor began to receive scathing criticism for her actions, there have been attempts by her supporters to blame the acts of aggression solely on ICE agents and on “outside” agitators in the crowd. And while one must always be on guard against the agent provocateur, any signs of that activity appear to have begun several days after the harsh response by the State police, as a distraction from the governor’s actions.
All in all, the resistance on the ground by the detainees and the people has been tremendous as they have launched the horrors of Delaney Hall and the State into the stratosphere.
The protests continue, and conditions continue to change on a day-by-day basis, as there are reports that some detainees have been released, while others are being retaliated against.
And the mayor has announced a new lawsuit to close Delaney Hall.
But as some of the hunger strikers have pointed out, merely closing Delaney Hall is not enough, as the detainees will simply be relocated to another facility. The detainees must be FREED first!
And what about the Essex County Correctional Facility, built right next door on a cesspool of contaminants, where many of our brothers and sisters are held in pretrial detention? That facility needs to be closed down as well!
And the State’s placement of these two facilities on such poisonous sites should be declared an act of biological warfare against black and brown people.
One thing is becoming increasingly clear under this system of parasitic, blood-sucking colonialism: it is the people who must RISE UP AND CHANGE THINGS. And loyalty to either of these two ruthless parties only leads to our demise.
It’s not just Trump—it’s the whole damned system!
