About a half-dozen congressional Democrats from New Jersey and other states came to Newark City Hall on Wednesday for a hearing meant to call attention to conditions at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center, and to needle Republicans for not joining in the inquiry.
The forum, titled “The Human Cost of Immigration Enforcement and Detention: Conditions and Oversight at Delaney Hall,” featured Democrats from the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, who made their ultimate goal clear: the closure of the 1,000-bed facility in Newark, which reopened in May of last year.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, the committee's ranking member, said in an opening statement that Democrats were taking up the mantle of oversight of homeland security that Republicans had abdicated under President Donald Trump.
"Oversight is not optional," Thompson said. "It's our duty."
“Unfortunately Republicans in Congress refuse to exercise the checks and balances our constitutional system requires,” he added.
The forum follows months of strife both inside and outside of Delaney Hall, where detainees have mounted hunger and labor strikes amid claims of substandard food, poor medical care and rough treatment by center staff.
Anti-ICE protesters have massed outside the facility in recent weeks, sometimes clashing with homeland security staff. ICE supporters have also made appearances outside the facility, though in much smaller numbers.
Wednesday’s witnesses included Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, and representatives from immigration advocacy groups, who resurfaced complaints from detainees and urged that the facility be closed.
The lawmakers also followed the forum with an inspection visit, where they said facility staff prevented them from talking to detainees.
Rep. LaMonica McIver, whose district includes Delaney Hall, told reporters that facility staff told them detainees must sign a "privacy release form" in order to talk to congressional representatives.
Neither Department of Homeland Security officials nor representatives of Geo Group, the private company that runs the facility, appeared at the forum. Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis issued a statement denying the allegations of poor conditions and said that ICE detention standards are higher than those in most U.S. prisons.
Bis said all detainees — the vast majority of whom have no criminal records — are provided three meals per day, clean water, bedding, clothing, showers, toiletries, medical care, and access to phones to communicate with family members and lawyers.
"Another day, another hoax about ICE. These sanctuary politicians need to stop with the smears," Bis said in the statement. "This hearing is nothing more than a political stunt by sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks."
Amol Sinha, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the ACLU, called on congressional Democrats to limit funding for ICE and to pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which would end the use of private, for-profit detention centers, prohibit the detention of families, and raise standards for conditions inside detention facilities.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
