Delaney Hall critics want it shut down for good — now NJ and Newark are escalating the fight

✅ New Jersey and Newark filed lawsuits over conditions inside Delaney Hall

✅ State officials say health inspectors were denied access to key areas

✅ Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the facility should close over health and safety

NEWARK — Lawsuits filed against the company that owns and operates Delaney Hall could go far toward achieving the goal of many Democrats to shut down the facility.

The state of New Jersey and the city of Newark filed separate lawsuits Friday aimed at gexposing conditions at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center.

Since taking office, Gov. Mikie Sherrill has been a strong critic of ICE and has said many times she wants to see Delaney Hall close its doors.

"I am going to keep working for better conditions inside Delaney Hall until it is closed for good," Sherrill said on Saturday after State Police were called in to handle protesters on Friday.

The lawsuit by Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka has its roots in ongoing action by the city over a lack of inspections that the mayor believes should have kept  Delaney closed when the facility reopened in 2025.

"We're going to argue even further that they should be closed because of health and human safety," Baraka said.

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Poor food and medical care

Both lawsuits come after recent complaints about the poor quality of food and medical care that detainees said they were receiving, which led to a hunger strike by detainees and protests outside the facility.  It is a privately owned facility contracted by the Department of Homeland Security with the GEO Group at a cost of $1 billion for 15 years.

"GEO is a private company who is hiding under the auspices of a contract that they have with the federal government — the federal government who has no employees that work here. This is not a federal facility. These are not federal grounds. This is a private facility. Private workers. And they are subject to state and municipal laws. They cannot be shielded by a contract that they have with Homeland Security, which is what they're trying to do over and over again with our case," Baraka said.

The case is about human lives and the way people are treated and their right to be treated humanely, according to the mayor.

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State lawsuit focuses on access for health inspectors

The state's lawsuit seeks to give the state Department of Health full access to Delaney Hall.  The governor said that health inspectors were permitted only in a limited area on May 28.

State Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said inspectors were not able to inspect "crucial areas," including the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathing and toileting areas in violation of state law. The lawsuit also said that a previously unreported case of Tuberculosis was found after a detainee was sent to University Hospital.

Detainees have also said the water tastes metallic and that other illnesses like COVID-19 and the flu were spreading through the facility.

“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,” Sherrill said.

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Newark to end overnight curfew near Delaney Hall

Baraka also said that as Newark police take full control of the police presence around Delaney Hall a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will end on Wednesday or Thursday. He said that a tire fire lit in the street and an incident in which someone was almost hit by a truck necessitated that a curfew be implemented.

If tensions escalate outside Delaney Hall again, Baraka said he is "prayerful" that they don't, but the city's community policing approach will be used

"We are going to have our folks out here. We're going to have our community teams out here. Our street teams out here. Most of them are not police officers. These people will be out here talking to the crowd, doing what's necessary," Baraka said.

Baraka said that he believes "99.9%" of the protesters did not come to attack ICE but rather to fight for the constitutional rights of detainees. Of the 61 arrests made by State Police, most were from out of state.

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