The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed the impending reopening of Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey. The movement for immigrant rights had previously shut down the center. It will be the first expansion of ICE detention centers under the second Trump presidency. This comes after a high profile ICE raid in Newark. ICE has also been conducting raids throughout Hudson County. The fight against ICE in New Jersey is becoming more urgent.
Delaney Hall has a capacity of 1,000 beds. Private prison company GEO Group signed a 15-year contract worth roughly $1 billion, to run the 1,000-bed detention center. The center is right by Newark Airport and 10 miles from NYC, meaning that its reopening is a central part of expanding ICE operations in the tri-state area. The fight against ICE in New Jersey must be taken up by those fighting the attacks in NYC and Philadelphia because these communities will also be harmed by an expansion of ICE in Newark.
While the reopening comes under Trump, it was Biden who began the initial work with GEO Group to reopen the center. Biden also sided with the private prison company, CoreCivic, to legally challenge a hard-won state ban on contracts between ICE and private prison companies that immigrants rights activists in New Jersey had fought for.
Despite the rightward shift from Democrats at the national level, many Democrats in New Jersey are positioning themselves as opposed to ICE expansion. Newark mayor Ras Baraka has made especially combative statements which many immigrant rights activists have shared with positive sentiments. But Baraka does not call for mobilizations in the streets or for unions to use their labor power to resist ICE expansion. Instead, he claims that the detention center “cannot lawfully open in Newark at this time.” This faith in the legality of the expansion is a losing fight.
Meanwhile, Cory Booker held a virtual round table with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, one of the leading immigrant rights organizations in New Jersey. But both Booker and Baraka refrained from taking up opposition to ICE while Biden was president, and both of them campaigned for Biden and Harris even after they attacked our state’s ban on ICE contracts with private prisons. And while Cory Booker may talk a good game against ICE activity in New Jersey, he supports oppressive systems which directly collaborate with ICE. For example, Booker hosted international war criminal Yoav Gallant, in December last year. Booker can’t claim to oppose ICE while supporting Israel’s genocidal regime which directly collaborates with ICE and exports surveillance technology to the U.S.-Mexico border. This also creates division between the movement for immigrant justice and the movement for Palestine, whereas unity between these movements could do far more to advance our fight.
Instead of trusting politicians to lead a meaningful fight against ICE detention, it will be essential for New Jersey residents to organize ourselves against these attacks, taking to the streets and organizing our coworkers in our workplaces. The day that the reopening of Delaney Hall was announced, several groups including Cosecha New Jersey, local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America, and SEIU 32BJ, held a rally in Jersey City. This is an important start to building a fightback.
And while rallies are important, mobilizing is not enough. The fact is that New Jersey has come close in the past to banning ICE detention, but we are currently seeing the limit to our previous fight for reforms. Creating spaces where everyone who wants to fight for immigrant rights can come together and democratically discuss strategy is essential to building a real fightback. These spaces must remain independent from the Democratic Party which has played a role in pacifying previous activity against ICE. As I wrote previously, it is essential for every rank and file fighter for immigrant rights to develop this perspective within the movement, challenging the common sense of certain groups to not call joint actions, to collaborate with Democrats, and to organize initiatives from above rather than creating spaces where everyone has a say in the direction of the movement.
People are furious about the reopening of Delaney Hall. A regional strategy of resistance, uniting communities across the tri-state area, grounded in class independence and a logic of the movement for immigrant rights organizing democratically from below can turn that fury into concrete opposition.
