Immigrant advocates plan summer of protests, hoping to close NJ detention center for good
One of the world's largest prison companies is suing the state seeking to continue operating the only detention center in New Jersey used for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Activist groups are rallying this summer to ensure that it closes for good.
Over a dozen organizations are planning a series of protests in front of the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility and appearances elsewhere to see that the facility doesn't avoid an August deadline set by state law to end its partnership with ICE.
The advocates want all detainees in the facility set free. They also want to get the attention of elected officials on the local, state and federal levels to end the jailing of undocumented immigrants nationwide.
"If you are in downtown Elizabeth today and you stand on a street corner, which we have done, and you tell people that there's a migrant jail, people will be shocked. They don't realize that it's there," said Kathy O'Leary, regional coordinator for Pax Christi New Jersey, which is taking part in the campaign.
"So it's really important for us to continue to educate people about the fact that this horrible place exists in their city," O'Leary said. "And it's really important for our legislators and decision makers to understand how long it's been there and how bad it's been."
The Elizabeth center, a sprawling brick box behind a fence on Evans Street, houses people accused of federal immigration violations. Detainees are usually asylum seekers and others waiting for immigration cases to be resolved, and those who have incurred criminal violations.
The facility can hold about 300 people, but its numbers have dropped significantly since a surge of migrant detentions during the Trump administration. CoreCivic held about 75 detainees there in January 2021, according to an audit conducted for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. ICE didn't respond to requests for an update last week.
Pax Christi New Jersey, a chapter of the international Catholic peace organization, has protested over the years about the detaining of immigrants and for the closing of the center. O'Leary said the group and its allies protested June 17 outside the Elizabeth facility, where they read statements from immigrants who were detained during the prison’s nearly 30-year history.
CoreCivic responds
Asked to comment on the activists' actions, CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd did not respond directly but provided a statement by email saying, "CoreCivic plays a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system, which we have done for every administration – Democrat and Republican – for nearly 40 years, including more than 20 years at Elizabeth Detention Center."
The Newark office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to questions from NorthJersey.com and The Record with an email saying the "inquiry will be reviewed by a member of our outreach team, and if appropriate, a response will be provided."
More: NJ asks judge to toss lawsuit by private prison company seeking to detain immigrants
Lawsuit seeks to keep jail open
CoreCivic filed its suit in February. It challenged a 2021 state law that prohibited local jails from entering into new contracts to house federal immigration detainees. The legislation was unconstitutional and is superseded by federal law that allows such operations, the Tennessee company said.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent New Jersey from enforcing its ban while CoreCivic is in the process of renewing its agreement with ICE. The current contract expires Aug. 31.
New Jersey's attorney general filed a motion for dismissal of the suit in May, arguing that CoreCivic has failed to prove it would be harmed by the law banning new contracts with the facility. The suit is still pending.
The state law was passed in June 2021 along party lines in the Democratic-controlled Legislature — and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy two months later. That followed years of protests calling for the end of cooperation between New Jersey law enforcement agencies and ICE. Critics argued that the detaining of immigrants had separated families and destabilized local communities.
O'Leary said the united organizations plan to keep protesting and pressing their case. She and other activists addressed the Elizabeth City Council meeting last Tuesday night and asked the city to make sure that the facility is never used again as a detention center.
"I was able to reiterate that we were asking what the city of Elizabeth would do to keep a private prison from again operating in its city and emphasize that they do have authority over their own zoning regulations. They can make private prisons a prohibited use," O'Leary said in an email after the meeting.
Report cites neglect
She said advocates also read from portions of a report the groups put together called "Anthology of Abuse," released online last week, which reviewed problems at the detention facility from its 1994 opening to the present. The 11-page report includes information culled from sources including lawsuits and media reports.
The report cites what critics call a longstanding pattern of deliberate medical neglect at the facility as factors in two deaths:
Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old man from Guinea who died in June 2007, four months after he suffered a head injury there. Advocates said he was denied treatment for over 13 hours and placed in solitary confinement before being taken to a hospital.
Victor Ramirez Reyes, a 56-year-old Ecuadorian man, who died at a hospital in September 2011 from heart problems. Critics of the center, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said his death could have been prevented if medical staff at the facility had properly monitored and controlled his blood pressure.
The report also mentions a 1995 uprising at the facility, then run by the private firm Esmor, when detainees protested over substandard conditions, briefly leading to a shutdown. Researchers from the organization Human Rights First, visiting the facility in 2018, said they were told by detainees that problems continued, with vermin-like worms and maggots found in food and the shower area.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage, who has served in office since 1992, could not be reached by phone and did not respond to questions about the activists' calls for the center to be shut down for good.
Jenny Garcia, communications associate for Detention Watch Network, a national coalition focused on abolishing immigration detention in the United States, said the report and actions planned for this summer are key to achieving a larger goal.
"If there's an ICE detention center within a community, the community members are more likely to be arrested by ICE," Garcia said. "What's important to us is that we keep safe and keep people feeling as though they are able to live freely and safely in their communities."
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ protests demand permanent closure for immigrant detention center
