CBS News got a rare look inside a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Newark, New Jersey, where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested last week. Baraka was charged with trespassing and was taken into custody during his visit to the ICE detention center on Friday. He was later released and said he did not do anything wrong. Baraka said he was not at Delaney Hall to protest but to show support for members of a New Jersey congressional delegation visiting the facility.
Acting ICE director Todd Lyons gave CBS News its own guided tour this week of Delaney Hall — a two-story, 1,000-bed facility, now among the largest detention centers in the Northeast.
ICE and the GEO Group, the facility’s owner, reached a $1 billion, 15-year deal this year to open the detention center, expanding their holding capacity along the East Coast amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
But while some ICE facilities nationwide are reaching their limits, Delaney Hall has a number of empty beds. With 152 detainees, it is at just 15% capacity since opening its doors on May 1. ICE officials say 75% of those detained have criminal convictions or pending criminal convictions.
“Right now, the teams out here in New York and New Jersey are focused on the worst of the worst and getting those individuals off the street that have been let go by a lot of these sanctuary jurisdictions,” Lyons told CBS News. “I think as you see more cooperation with ICE, where we do arrest more criminal aliens in the street you’ll see the population here rise.”
Footage from CBS News’ tour of the building shows an outdoor recreational facility, bunk beds, single beds, medical exam rooms, a slot on the wall for “detainee grievances,” the cafeteria, kitchen and secure booths with computers and phones where officials say detainees can contact their lawyers or family members.
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“They can have limited email access as well,” Lyons said.
When asked whether migrants detained in the Newark facility deserve due process, which has emerged as a central issue amid the immigration crackdown, Lyons said he was proud of how the facility is being run.
“Illegal aliens that come into Delaney Hall, they do get due process. I am proud of the work that’s done here because they are being treated in a safe and humane fashion,” Lyons said.
The Trump administration is “actively looking at” the possibility of suspending the writ of habeas corpus to handle people the administration says aren’t in the country legally, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Friday.
Lyons was asked if he would be concerned if due process was taken away. ICE officials ended the interview before he could answer the question, later citing a security concern at the facility.
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Delaney Hall was operating as a halfway house for the past few years before ICE announced in February that it would be reestablished as a federal immigration processing and detention center — the first to open under President Trump’s second term. It is located less than 10 miles outside of New York City and a little over five miles from Newark Liberty International Airport.
“The location near an international airport streamlines logistics, and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities,” former acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said at the time.
Baraka, who announced plans to run for governor in New Jersey, called his arrest a humiliation and questioned the oversight of the privately owned facility. Baraka alleges the GEO Group, which struck an agreement with ICE to open the facility as a detention center, did not obtain proper permits and blocked fire, electrical and plumbing inspections.
“I don’t think people should be making profit off of prison, right, and I think there needs to be public oversight,” Baraka told CBS News.
In a statement provided to CBS News New York, the GEO Group denied Baraka’s allegations and said it had valid permits, adding the recent criticism is “another unfortunate example of a politicized campaign by sanctuary city and open borders politicians in New Jersey to interfere with the federal government’s efforts to arrest, detain, and deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens.”
Since Mr. Trump took office, federal agents have arrested nearly 2,000 illegal migrants in the Newark area, six times the number picked up during the same time period in former President Joe Biden’s first year.
Jennifer Earl
contributed to this report.
