Security personnel stand in front of Delaney Hall, a recently re-opened immigration detention center, in Newark, N.J., Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
May 07, 2025 - 12:47 PM
President Donald Trump 's administration expanded its capacity to detain immigrants not legally in the country by opening a facility in New Jersey's largest city this month, spurring protests outside the fenced-in building including from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed facility along an industrial stretch of Newark Bay, opened May 1, according to the private prison company that operates the center. The administration’s announcement came amid a headline-grabbing crackdown on immigration around the country and as it ramped up its efforts to deport certain immigrants.
The situation is playing out in Newark and in federal court as the mayor litigates against the company running the facility. The city says it shouldn’t be open yet because of building permit issues. The conflict underscores the divide between what Trump views as an election mandate to deport people not lawfully in the U.S., and Democratic officials who question the administration's methods as well as the necessity of cracking down.
A closer look at what's going on at the Newark detention center.
What is Delaney Hall and why is it in the news?
The gray, two-story building next to a county prison operated as a halfway house before a February announcement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it and the GEO Group, which runs Delaney Hall, reached a $1 billion, 15-year deal for a detention center there.
The new facility sparked pushback from immigrants rights groups and the mayor in particular. Baraka sued GEO Group soon after the deal between the company and ICE was announced. The case got transferred from state to federal court, where a judge is considering the city's request to temporarily block the opening of the facility.
It’s not clear whether anyone is held inside yet. GEO Group did not comment on whether it was holding detainees at Delaney Hall, and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What does the mayor say about it?
Baraka says the facility lacks the proper city permits in order to open, including a certificate of occupancy. He appeared Tuesday and Wednesday outside the facility's gates, aiming to gain entry but ultimately being denied.
This comes as the mayor, who is the son of late poet and activist Amiri Baraka, is in a crowded Democratic primary to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat. Baraka has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration, arguing the president is pushing constitutional due process limits.
“It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue in my mind. This is an issue of human rights, an issue of due process, an issue of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States,” he said this week. “We are afraid and opposed and alarmed by them setting up a detention center.”
The city says Delaney Hall has permit issues such as needing grounded electrical outlets in a half-dozen rooms in the facility, and a new entry gate that needs a permit related to electrical work, among other things. That's according to code inspection documents submitted in legal filings for the city's case against GEO Group. The inspection didn't find any problems with how fire extinguishers had been serviced, and said exit signs were properly installed.
Where does the company running the facility stand?
Florida-based GEO Group said the mayor is politicizing the situation and that city officials didn't object when the Obama administration operated the facility as an ICE processing center.
Christopher Ferreira, a company spokesperson, said via a statement that the facility is creating “hundreds of unionized jobs, with an average annual salary of $105,000, and is expected to contribute $50 million to the local Newark economy.”
In legal filings, the company has argued there's no legal standing for the city to seek a preliminary injunction based on the “purported violations of city codes.”
News from © The Associated Press, 2025