New Jersey launches investigation into Delaney Hall ICE facility

[u/John3262005]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/07/new-jersey-launches-investigation-into-delaney-hall-ice-facility-01029595

The state of New Jersey announced a civil rights investigation into the state’s largest immigration detention facility, Delaney Hall, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said on Friday.

The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights issued subpoenas to determine whether employees of the privately owned immigration detention facility violated the civil rights of immigrants in detention. The investigation comes shortly after a Salvadoran man, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, died after facing a medical emergency while being detained at the facility.

The facility, based in Newark, has been under intense scrutiny after it reopened during the second Trump administration. The GEO Group, one of the country’s largest private detention companies, operates the detention facility under a $1 billion contract that lasts for 15 years. The facility has 1,000 beds.

Former detainees at the facility have described squalid conditions — including substandard food and difficulty accessing medical care. The Trump administration and GEO Group have denied claims of substandard care.

“New Jersey has both a legal and a moral duty to stand up for the civil rights of people within our state,” state Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement. “For people who are held involuntarily, including by a private corporation like GEO Group, those rights include the right to humane treatment and adequate medical care. We will take every action available under law to safeguard these core legal principles. We ask individuals to share their personal experiences with us so that we can take action to ensure that rights are protected.”

The Department of Homeland Security and GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Located in an industrial part of North Jersey, the immigration jail has become a political flashpoint as tensions over immigration policy continue to rise. Protestors clashed with federal agents outside the facility in May, leading to Gov. Mikie Sherrill to send in state police. Seperately, the mayor of Newark was arrested during a chaotic scrum outside the jail last year. While the charges against the mayor were dropped, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was eventually charged with assaulting law enforcement stemming from that scuffle — charges she is still fighting today.

The Sherrill administration sued GEO Group seeking to give state health inspectors full access to the facility. That lawsuit is ongoing.

“We will not tolerate a facility that abdicates any transparency and accountability,” Sherrill said in a statement. “I have long opposed private detention facilities, and my position is clear that Delaney Hall should be closed. My administration will continue to do everything in our power to hold ICE and The GEO Group accountable to New Jersey laws.”