Voices from Delaney Hall: Family and Community Members Demand Release of Loved Ones from ICE Jail

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Hundreds of immigrants detained at the ICE jail known as Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and labor strike for nearly two weeks. They are protesting the conditions at the jail, including spoiled food that has had maggots in it, overcrowding and inadequate medical care. Detainees are also forced to work for around $1 per day. In retaliation against the strike, guards at Delaney Hall have reportedly beaten participants, and family visitation was temporarily suspended. The strikers are demanding their release from the ICE jail and that the most vulnerable populations are freed first.

Detainees’ family members, along with immigration advocates and anti- ICE protesters, have been rallying outside Delaney Hall since the strike began. Democracy Now! ’s María Taracena was outside Delaney on Tuesday. She spoke to a man who had just been released from detention, a community organizer, a lawyer and family members who were waiting to visit their loved ones inside the ICE jail.

Police have erected barricades half a mile around Delaney Hall, “making it more and more difficult to go and visit those who are on labor and hunger strike,” says Natalie, a New Jersey volunteer with the mutual aid group Eyes on ICE . “I was trying to see my father. He recently got put in,” says the daughter of a man being held in Delaney Hall. She is struggling to find legal support for her father. “He does not deserve to go to another country when he belongs in this one.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH : As protests continue outside the Newark, New Jersey, immigration jail known as Delaney Hall, New Jersey’s attorney general has sued the GEO Group, the private prison company operating the facility. The lawsuit asks the court to grant the state Health Department full access to the facility.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said in a statement, quote, “If the GEO Group — with a $1bn government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as 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 throughout the building.” The New Jersey governor is still being denied access to visit the ICE jail.

AMY GOODMAN : This comes as the city of Newark plans to expand its own lawsuit from last year against the for-profit GEO Group, asking a court to close Delaney Hall unless city officials are allowed to inspect the jail. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also lifted a nightly curfew around Delaney Hall on Tuesday as hundreds of immigrants jailed inside the ICE jail continue a hunger and labor strike.

Democracy Now! ’s María Inés Taracena was outside Delaney Hall Tuesday and filed this report.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA : We are standing outside the police barricade. It’s about half a mile away from Delaney Hall, the ICE jail here in Newark. We just spent the afternoon with mutual aid workers, speaking to them, speaking to some of the families of immigrants who are detained inside.

NATALIE : They’re saying families need an appointment. That has never been the case for those visiting. They’re just making it more and more difficult to go and visit those who are on labor and hunger strike. And those who have been on strike have been isolated, retaliated against, have had their tablets taken away from them, have had pepper sprays in their units, and then had the doors closed. We have firsthand accounts of this happening. These families are just here to visit. They’re still waiting here. And whenever we ask the cops, they are literally ignoring me.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA : And are families — how do they feel? Have they told you if they are afraid now that they have to be escorted by police in order to even get to the entrance of Delaney Hall, which used to not be the case when this barrier was not in place?

NATALIE : People are scared. People are confused. I just heard a mom tell her daughter, “It’s OK. We’re OK. Look, I told you there’s nothing to be scared of,” because the daughter started shaking. She’s just here to see her dad. She thinks Delaney Hall is a hospital, because her family is too scared to tell her what it actually is, which is a concentration camp.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA : That was Natalie, a mutual aid organizer with the group Eyes on ICE New Jersey. We spoke to a high school senior, who asked us not to use his real name. He was wearing his graduation sash.

HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR : I’m here to visit my father and to — I mean, I just came from — well, from my signing day, and I wanted to come see my father.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA : What would you like to tell your father on such a special day and such an incredible accomplishment?

HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR : That I did it for him. All I ever thought about, all I had in mind was him. I really — I really wish he was here. I really — I really wish he was here to…