Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Letter with 300 signatures describes 'torture' ICE detainees face in Newark
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published May 13, 2026
Modified May 14, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published May 13, 2026
Modified May 14, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
An open letter that appears to be signed by nearly 300 detainees at an ICE detention center in Newark describes them as being “tortured physically and psychologically” with substandard food, and denied adequate access to healthcare and legal representation.
The letter came from detainees of the Delaney Hall detention center, originally given to one detainee’s family members, according to the coalition of advocacy groups that released it Tuesday evening. It states detainees’ constitutional rights have been repeatedly violated by authorities in the immigration justice system, and that they’d been trying to obtain legal status while contributing to their communities in America before being detained.
The letter appears to be a significant escalation in detainees’ efforts to organize and bring their concerns to the outside world, at a facility where four detainees escaped last year and others pushed down an exterior wall during an uprising that attorneys and advocates said was over low-quality food and missed meals. Another letter, released in February, outlined similar concerns as the new letter, and appeared to be signed by about two dozen people.
Jenny Garcia, the detention campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, a member of the Eyes on New Jersey coalition that released the new letter, said both letters were organized by a detainee named Bryan who is originally from Ecuador and has been inside Delaney Hall for almost a year. She declined to give Bryan’s last name out of concern that he would face retaliation. The advocates who released the letters redacted identifying information about detainees, and Gothamist cannot independently validate the signatures.
Garcia said it seemed detainees were able to organize across units, because no single unit in Delaney Hall is big enough to house everyone that signed. About 50 of the signees are women, according to advocates.
“To get 300 people to sign a letter in conditions in which you don't really have access to each other or materials, it’s a feat of its own,” Garcia said. “It's a testament to the amount of organizing and amount of bravery that, you know, exists within these detention facilities.”
Advocates got the letter weeks ago from a family member of Bryan’s. Garcia said it was shared with Sen. Andy Kim and Rep. Rob Menendez’s offices in hopes of pressuring ICE to improve conditions in the facility.
Menendez, in a statement, said the letter "confirms what we have heard during each one of our visits" to Delaney Hall. Kim's and Menendez's offices said they became aware of the the letter upon its public release.
"This letter is a continuation of the organizing that's happening inside, and the organizing of people who are trying to free themselves," said Kathy O’Leary — coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey, another member of the coalition. "We often see people trying to free themselves. It's a little more unusual to see people join together like this."
The letter describes the people inside Delaney Hall as detained without judicial warrants and at scheduled appointments with immigration officials. It states they are without adequate legal representation, that their cases are being heard by immigration judges whose caseloads are too heavy to give full consideration to each individual and that their assigned courts sometimes do not have translators or interpreters.
“Many hearings are canceled, leaving detainees waiting months for a court date,” the letter reads.
The mental stress of detention is amplified by inadequate food inside Delaney Hall, the letter states.
“We feel vulnerable and, in a way, kidnapped — detained without justification — not to mention that we are being tortured physically and psychologically due to the poor food resources provided,” the letter reads.f
The detainees also allege that sickness has become widespread inside Delaney Hall, alleging that COVID-19 and the flu are spreading through the population. They say their group includes “individuals from the LGBTQ+ community with diagnoses of illnesses such as HIV, cancer, diabetes, heart problems, among others, who are not receiving proper medical attention for the aforementioned conditions.”
Delaney Hall is operated by the GEO Group, a Florida-based private company. Christopher Ferreira, a spokesperson for the company, said the facility complies with all ICE requirements. Ferreira added the company provides “around-the-clock access to medical care, legal and family visitation, general and legal libraries, and meals that can meet the needs of religious and specialty diets,” and described the allegations as “politically motivated outside groups” opposed to ICE.
GEO has said the value of its 15-year contract to operate the facility is about $1 billion.
An ICE spokesperson said detainees are afforded full due process, and dismissed complaints about the immigration justice system as misinformation spread by activists to undermine federal authorities.
The letter is written in Spanish and was translated into English by advocacy groups. It ends with “S.O.S." written in large letters and appears to be signed by 288 detainees with their names and ICE-assigned “a-Numbers.” That identifying information is redacted in the copy of the letter released publicly Tuesday, though the countries of origin for some detainees remain visible. The signatures are accompanied by notations saying the detainees are from countries around the world, though most appear to be from Central America.
The advocates redacted the letter before publishing it to try and protect the detainees who signed on, O’Leary said.
"People will end up in solitary for much less than writing a letter and smuggling it out," O’Leary said. "So we're concerned about the safety of the people who are organizing."
Garcia said the detainees believe they could face consequences for trying to raise awareness of their plight.
“ The conditions in which they are being subjected to sort of outweighs the risk for them sometimes,” Garcia said. “ They are completely aware of how wrong it is, what is happening to them, that they want the public to know.”
Garcia praised Bryan’s work on the letters inside Delaney Hall.
“ Back where he's from, he was also an organizer helping single mothers,” Garcia said. “He has just been incredible for us to really understand the inside, and we just learned so much from him from his organization of this letter.”
Tuesday’s letter comes a day after Menendez and Rep. Nellie Pou made an oversight visit to Delaney Hall. Pou said in a statement following the letter’s release that “all Americans should be outraged” by conditions at the facility.
“The information detailed here is highly disturbing and sadly aligns with what I heard and saw at Delaney Hall this week,” Pou said. “ICE’s abuses continue and countless men and women are suffering. Delaney Hall should be shut down and ICE’s leadership held accountable.”
Earlier in the day Tuesday, Menendez and Rep. LaMonica McIver introduced a bill that would boost oversight of ICE by guaranteeing that members of Congress are able to access detention facilities like Delaney Hall whenever they want, without giving prior notice. Federal law and policy described in ICE guidance as recently as last year says members of Congress may visit detention facilities without advance notice, but the Trump administration has been seeking to curb that access.
McIver was indicted on charges of impeding federal officers after a scuffle outside of Delaney Hall when she and other elected officials tried to conduct an unannounced oversight visit of the facility last year. McIver is still trying to have those charges dismissed. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested during the same incident, but federal authorities dismissed those charges.
“Detainees at Delaney Hall are being abused behind closed doors. DHS is literally starving people and denying them medical care. How much suffering do we need to see until we put a stop to this?” McIver said in a statement. “We have warned this administration repeatedly of these conditions and their response has been to try to put me in prison. We keep speaking out and pushing back until something changes: DHS is cruel, real people are suffering, and we need to abolish ICE.”
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons issued a memo on Monday — first obtained by Bloomberg Law — describing congressional oversight visits as disruptive to detention center operations and placing new restrictions on detainees’ ability to meeting with lawmakers during the visits.
“ICE cannot accommodate congressional meetings with hundreds of detainees without significant disruption to facility operations,” Lyons wrote in the memo. He said accommodating such meetings “detracts from their core mission and is not a reasonable use of staff time or taxpayer resources.”
This story has been updated with comment from ICE and the GEO Group.
Tagged
immigration
new jersey
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .