Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Tuesday demanded the immediate shutdown of Delaney Hall, a privately run concentration camp for victims of the Trump administration’s brutal immigration crackdown, as the city filed a lawsuit seeking to close the facility over what he called systemic health and safety failures.
At the same hour, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced a separate state lawsuit against the facility’s operator, The GEO Group, after state health inspectors were blocked from conducting a full inspection of the detention center’s medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathrooms.
Standing outside the embattled complex, Baraka announced an expansion of existing litigation against GEO, arguing that no federal contract can shield the facility from municipal codes governing sanitation, medical care, and basic human decency.
“What matters most is not the violence outside, but the conditions inside,” Baraka told reporters. “The public conversation has shifted away from the urgent issues — away from the detainees, the overwhelming majority of whom are not criminals.”
The announcement followed a weekend of chaos.
Protesters and New Jersey State Police clashed Sunday night after the mayor imposed a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew within a half-mile radius of the detention center.
Police in riot gear and on horseback swept through crowds. Dozens were arrested. Tear gas was deployed. Baraka himself called the law enforcement response “overly aggressive, unnecessary, and in some instances unconstitutional.”
By Monday night, the scene had quieted. No arrests were made. Baraka said he hopes to lift the curfew as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday night, but the underlying crisis remains unresolved.
The Trump administration’s inhumane immigration enforcement action and mass deportations have stirred intense debate across the country.
Critics and advocacy groups have described it as a harsh and unnecessary crackdown, marked by large-scale arrests, expanded detention centers, and the presence of Gestapo-like federal agents in many cities, leading to several deadly confrontations.
The mayor pointed to reports he said the city cannot ignore: an inmate who allegedly suffered a miscarriage and received no proper medical care, a hunger strike that has stretched for days, and detainees locked down and denied food.
The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied all allegations, insisting that detainees receive three meals a day, clean water, clothing, and bedding.
Those allegations are now the subject of parallel legal action by the state. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Essex County Superior Court, Davenport and the state Department of Health requested an expedited injunction compelling GEO Group to allow full access for a complete inspection.
State inspectors were permitted inside on May 28 for a limited visit, but they were barred from examining the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathing and toileting facilities, according to the complaint. GEO has refused repeated requests since then.
“If the GEO Group has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access,” said Gov. Rebecca ‘Mikie’ Sherrill.
Health Commissioner Raynard E. Washington said inspections “are not political — they are essential public health tools.”
The state’s filing notes that detainees began a hunger strike on May 22, reporting spoiled food and no access to toilet paper, menstrual products, or toothpaste.
Sen. Andy Kim and Rep. Rob Menendez Jr. went inside the facility on May 23.
Kim met with a pregnant woman who said she was not receiving obstetrics care and with a woman who said she had suffered a miscarriage and received no medical attention, left to manage it alone. The Department of Health also received a report of a detainee taken to University Hospital with tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease.
“GEO Group must allow our state’s health inspectors to conduct a full inspection of Delaney Hall,” Davenport said. “The reports of unsanitary and unsafe conditions are extremely concerning, and GEO Group — like any other business and facility in New Jersey — must follow the law.”
Baraka, for his part, said Delaney Hall is owned and operated by a private company with private workers. “They are subject to municipal laws,” he said. “They cannot be shielded by a contract with Homeland Security.”
The White House offered no compromise. In a social media post Monday, it warned: “ICE operations will NOT be deterred. Riot, obstruct, or assault an officer and you will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Protesters outside the facility this week said their First Amendment rights are being trampled. Carolyn Rush, one of the demonstrators, put it plainly: “I think our First Amendment is being violated.”
Inside the protest encampment, Charlotte Kreutz, who has spent months helping families, described the isolation of those held within. “Only three people got in on Sunday — three family members — and there are hundreds of people in here that aren’t able to talk to anybody,” she said.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the federal response, warning that threats or physical contact with officers would result in immediate arrest.
“When you spit on an officer, when you put hands on an officer, when you touch our vehicles, that is assaulting federal property and assaulting a federal officer, and we have zero tolerance,” said Mullin, showing the blatant disregard for the government’s duty to protect the health and dignity of those it holds in custody.
Baraka was unmoved. He announced that Newark will take on a greater security role in coordination with state police, and he vowed to restore pedestrian access to the front of Delaney Hall for peaceful protest.
The city’s lawsuit, he said, is not about a curfew or crowd control. It is about the men and women locked inside a concrete jail cell on municipal land, beyond the reach of municipal law — for now.
“Our real reason for being out here is to make sure Delaney Hall is closed,” Baraka said. “All the attention on violence takes us away from that.”
Discover more from NJTODAY.NET
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.