Legal Action Taken Against Private Prison Operator
Health officials in New Jersey have taken legal action against the private prison company that manages a controversial immigration detention center. The facility, known as Delaney Hall, is currently facing a nearly two-week-long strike by detainees and ongoing protests over allegations of deteriorating conditions inside.
The New Jersey Department of Health has filed a lawsuit demanding “immediate entry” to Delaney Hall. This comes after investigators were only given limited access to the facility despite growing complaints from immigrant detainees, their lawyers, and families about overcrowded and inhumane conditions. These include concerns about “potentially inadequate tuberculosis infection control practices.”
Inspectors initially tried to enter Delaney Hall on May 27 but were denied full access, according to a civil complaint filed on Tuesday. They were barred from entering the jail’s medical unit, toilets, shower facilities, and sleeping areas. The state’s health department states it is unable to determine whether GEO Group and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are taking sufficient precautions to mitigate the serious and unchecked risk of communicable diseases to both detainees at Delaney Hall and the public at large.
Protests and Hunger Strikes Continue
The lawsuit comes as GEO Group and ICE face daily demonstrations from dozens of protesters supporting detainees who have been on a hunger strike. The detainees are protesting what they describe as rotting food, due process violations, a lack of access to legal counsel, and retaliation from ICE agents for their ongoing strike actions.
Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed, two-story detention center, opened on May 1, 2025, and is operated by private prison contractor GEO Group. It was awarded a 15-year, $1 billion contract by Donald Trump’s administration to run the facility.
State health inspections are designed to detect and assess whether there exist current practices or conditions in a particular facility or premises that could facilitate the unchecked transmission of foodborne, airborne, or other communicable diseases, according to the lawsuit.
“If left unchecked and unabated, an outbreak of communicable disease could impact not only the facility’s residents, but also the public health at large, if employees or other visitors to the facility contract and transmit these diseases after they have departed the facility,” lawyers for the state’s health department wrote.
Public Health Concerns Reach a Tipping Point
Public health concerns inside Delaney Hall reached a tipping point last month after a letter signed by roughly 300 detainees alleged a “high spread” of COVID-19 and flu. They also reported that detainees with HIV, cancer, diabetes, and “heart problems” and other conditions were left untreated.
Members of Congress who visited the facility in recent weeks also reported that detainees complained to them about rotting food and lack of medical care. Democratic Sen. Andy Kim said one pregnant detainee told him she has not been able to receive full obstetrics and gynecological care. Another detainee told him she was left to manage a miscarriage on her own.
On May 28, state health officials received a complaint from a physician who reported that one detainee from Delaney Hall was brought to University Hospital with an active case of tuberculosis. Health inspectors were allowed inside the facility that same day after several previous attempts were denied.
Inspectors urged administration officials to let them perform a full inspection on Monday and sought “assurances that ICE would not obstruct” the health department from exercising its authority, according to the complaint. But an official told the health department that inspectors “would not be able to inspect any areas of the facility other than the food service areas it had already visited,” the lawsuit states.
“If the GEO Group — with a $1 billion 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,” New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a statement.
Calls for Closure and Increased Scrutiny
The lawsuit follows a renewed push from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to widen the scope of the city’s federal lawsuit against GEO Group after an initial complaint was filed last year over health and safety concerns. Sherrill and several elected officials are also urging ICE to close the facility altogether.
The Independent has requested comment from GEO Group. Homeland Security has repeatedly denied allegations of abuse, overcrowding, and inhumane conditions inside, and Secretary Markwayne Mullin has dismissed reports of a hunger strike as detainees complaining about a lack of access to “ethnic food.”
“Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want,” he said during a White House cabinet meeting last week. “We’re giving them the calories they want. This isn’t Holiday Inn.”
Tensions outside the facility have boiled over into violence in recent days, with immigration officers and New Jersey State Police beating back protesters who have remained outside the jail for nearly two weeks. At least 61 people were arrested on Sunday night. The Newark Police Department took command of the police response on Monday.
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