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Biden administration wants to keep notorious ICE jail open, despite NJ law
By
Matt Katz
Published Jul 20, 2023
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Matt Katz / Gothamist
By
Matt Katz
Published Jul 20, 2023
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Biden administration officials want to keep detaining immigrants at a notorious privately run jail in New Jersey -- the only immigration detention center within 60 miles of New York City — despite a state law banning such facilities.
Two years ago, New Jersey legislators responded to concerns about federal immigration policies and local jail conditions by passing a law that effectively prevents CoreCivic, the company that runs the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, from renewing its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Now, in a 51-page statement filed in federal court this week, the Department of Justice is arguing that that law infringes on the federal government’s responsibility to regulate immigration and jail immigrants.
CoreCivic has already sued Gov. Phil Murphy, who signed the law banning public and private ICE facilities. The government’s filing, signed in part by U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger, was made in support of that lawsuit. CoreCivic and ICE are seeking to extend their contract past its expiration date Aug. 31, which as of now would be illegal, so they are asking the court for an injunction.
The federal government’s filing argues that closing the facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, could result in the “release of certain dangerous noncitizens, frequent and costly transport of detainees, the isolation of detainees at great distance from families, and the obstruction of federal proceedings.”
The federal government called the Elizabeth facility “mission critical,” particularly since its proximity to international airports allows it to “effect removals.”
The windowless detention center in an industrial neighborhood is a former warehouse that now holds 221 people, according to ICE. Detainees have long complained about problematic conditions, including birds inside that defecate on beds, abuse from staff, and a lack of sanitary pads. The facility is set up like a dormitory, with one bathroom for every 40 people. Detainees have also alleged they have to buy their own basic provisions, like soap.
A coalition of dozens of New Jersey activists and civil rights groups released a statement saying it would fight the Biden administration’s attempt to overturn the law its members spent years lobbying for.
“The Biden administration’s decision to side with CoreCivic, the world’s largest private prison company, is bitterly disappointing but unsurprising,” they said. “New Jersey is no stranger to the uphill battle it will take to remove ICE’s abusive presence from our communities, nor the megacorporations who seek to profit off of our communities’ misery.”
New Jersey is due to respond to the federal government’s arguments by the end of the month, with oral arguments scheduled for August.
Immigrants held in detention are not charged with, nor convicted, of crimes; they have been ordered to be deported, and are either waiting to be removed from the country or fighting their cases. Many of those held at Elizabeth are asylum-seekers with claims of persecution who were taken into custody after flying into local airports. Others may have been transferred there from prison after serving time for criminal convictions.
Nationwide, most immigration detention facilities are run by private companies through lucrative contracts with the government. ICE holds about 27,000 detainees nationally.
The federal government has detained immigrants in Elizabeth since the early 1990s.
During the term of former President Donald Trump, who sharpened immigration restrictions and ordered the arrests of any immigrant without documentation, detention centers in the New York City region filled up with as many as 1,900 people. In addition to Elizabeth, immigrants were held at three county jails in New Jersey — Essex, Hudson and Bergen — all run by Democratic elected officials whose government coffers were boosted by the detention contracts.
That fact, coupled with news stories about violence and inhumane conditions, plus COVID outbreaks at the jails, buoyed activists who staged rallies and subjected themselves to arrest, harnessing widespread outrage over Trump’s broader immigration policies into organized opposition to the detention contracts. Before the 2021 detention center ban even passed, counties began to withdraw from the contracts.
“The lack of detention resources in New Jersey has already had a severe impact on national-security, public-safety and border-security operations in a critical area of the nation,” said Robert Guadian Jr., deputy assistant director for field operations for ICE, in a court briefing. “And if the Elizabeth facility is forced to close…those severe impacts will become catastrophic.”
Tagged
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new jersey
Matt Katz
Matt Katz is a former WNYC & Gothamist reporter.
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