New Jersey attorney general sues to gain health-inspector access to Delaney Hall ICE detention center

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport sued the company that operates the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark on Tuesday, demanding that health inspectors be granted full access to the facility.

The lawsuit against the private prison firm GEO Group Inc. said the center was “the focus of well-documented concerns about inhumane and unsanitary conditions for detainees.”

“GEO Group must allow our state’s health inspectors to conduct a full inspection,” Davenport said in a statement, calling reports of unsafe conditions “extremely concerning” and saying that “GEO Group — like any other business and facility in New Jersey — must follow the law.”

She said she would continue working with Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Health Commissioner Raynard Washington to ensure that people detained inside Delaney Hall are treated with dignity.

The suit was filed only hours after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the city would expand its own lawsuit against the company, seeking to shutter the ICE detention center that since Memorial Day weekend has been the site of sometimes violent protests over detainees’ living conditions.

Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, called the state’s lawsuit “frivolous.”

“ICE is committed to transparency, and Delaney Hall complies with all required state and local laws,” she said in a written response to a request for comment. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”

The GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

For nearly two weeks, protesters have gathered outside the facility, with most in support of immigrant detainees and some there for ICE, amid reports of inhumane conditions and a hunger strike.

Trump administration officials insist that there had been no hunger strike, and that detainees are held in safe and humane conditions.

Border czar Tom Homan told CNN that he made an unannounced visit to Delaney Hall on Saturday, where he was served the same food as those held there, which he described as plentiful and good, including spaghetti with meat sauce, beans, and rolls.

During Memorial Day weekend, Sherrill and other elected officials went to the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall after some detainees said they had begun a hunger strike to protest conditions. As GEO Group operators refused to respond to their demands for full transparency, Davenport said, the New Jersey Health Department began trying to gain access to conduct a complete inspection.

The attorney general said that on May 28, health department inspectors were allowed inside Delaney Hall for a limited look, permitted to see only the food-service areas. They were barred from inspecting the medical unit and the sleeping, bathing, and toilet areas. Since then, despite repeated requests, inspectors have not been granted access for a full inspection, she said.

“Any facility housing people in New Jersey must meet basic standards under the law to prevent the spread of disease, keep food and water safe, and minimize health risks. That includes Delaney Hall,” Washington, the health commissioner, said in a statement. “Health inspections are not political — they are essential public health tools.”

Bis, of Homeland Security, said four New Jersey Health Department representatives arrived at 11 a.m. that day, inspected the food-service department, and left 90 minutes later when that work was completed. “We will continue to grant state and local inspectors’ access to the facility where appropriate,” she said.

Davenport’s lawsuit, filed in Essex County Superior Court, contends that GEO Group violated state law by refusing to allow the state health department to conduct a full inspection. The suit seeks an expedited injunction directing GEO Group to allow inspectors access to the entire facility.

An inspection, the attorney general said, would allow the health department to verify whether protocols or practices inside Delaney Hall pose a serious risk of harm to detainees in the facility or to the public outside it. Any unchecked spread of illness inside the center poses a risk to detainees, to employees and contractors, and to visitors who could then spread illness to the public, she said.

“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," the governor said in a statement, “then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access.”

She said that New Jerseyans deserve transparency and accountability, and that she “will continue using all the power of this office to advocate for the detainees and their families.”

The attorney general said detainees have told relatives and advocacy groups that the water tasted metallic; that people were denied medical care or medications; and that flu or COVID-19 was spreading. In late May the health department received a report of a detainee being taken to a hospital with tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease, the attorney general said.

Baraka’s suit also was based on health and safety grounds, and cited the facility’s refusal to allow health inspectors full access.

“We believe they should be shut down, because we have actually irrefutable evidence that this place is uninhabitable,” the mayor told CNN News Central.

The City of Newark has for the last year pursued the closure of Delaney Hall in court, saying in a lawsuit against GEO Group that the operators have violated city codes. The new filing adds to those claims.

“It’s not a federal facility, which is why we’re going after the GEO Group,” the mayor told CNN. The private operators “are the owners of this property, and they are subject to local and state law.”

Delaney Hall is among hundreds of ICE detention centers across the United States, places where immigrants who have been arrested are processed for deportation. It is operated by the private firm under a 15-year, $1 billion federal contract awarded last year.

The mayor imposed an indefinite curfew outside the center after a series of clashes between demonstrators and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who were recently supplanted by state police. Baraka closed roughly a half mile around Delaney Hall from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.