Immigration and Customs Enforcement has signed a contract for a 1,000-bed facility to be built in Newark, New Jersey, in what will become the largest migrant holding center on the east coast.
Delaney Hall, located next to the Essex County jail, will be the first major deportation center built under the Trump administration, according to the New Jersey Monitor.
Democrats in New Jersey are apoplectic over the new contract, and many were taken off guard by the speed with which the Trump administration moved on the facility.
New Jersey Democrat Rep. Rob Menendez said that the Trump administration gave state officials “no heads up” about the planned contract. “If they didn’t think the threat was real already, their eyes should be wide open right now,” he added about the administration’s plans.
New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy also blasted the announcement and said he is “extremely disappointed” in the news.
“Our Administration has previously fought to limit such entities opening in our state and will continue to do so,” the governor’s office said on Thursday.
The contract was signed with the GEO Group, a secure facilities operator, which will provide “security, maintenance, and food services, as well as access to recreational amenities, medical care, and legal counsel,” to detainees awaiting deportation, the company said Thursday in a press release.
“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,” acting ICE director Caleb Vitello said on Thursday.
“Our company-owned Delaney Hall Facility will play an important role in providing needed detention bedspace and support services for ICE in the Northeast,” said GEO Executive Chairman George C. Zoley. “We are continuing to prepare for what we believe is an unprecedented opportunity to help the federal government meet its expanded immigration enforcement priorities. We are taking several important steps to meet this opportunity, including making a previously announced $70 million investment in capital expenditures to strengthen our capabilities to deliver expanded detention capacity, secure transportation, and electronic monitoring and related services to ICE and the federal government.”
“This is a unique moment in our company’s history,” Zoley said adding that GEO is now the “single largest contractor to ICE.”
GEO Group signed a 15-year contract worth approximately one billion over the term.
Delaney Hall was last used as a detention center back in 2017. Plans had been made to use the facility again, but New Jersey tried to pass a law barring private companies from contracting with ICE in New Jersey. That law, however, was vacated by a federal judge as unconstitutional in 2023. The state has appealed the ruling and the case is still outstanding.
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