1st immigration detention center of Trump's 2nd term to open in Newark

Federal immigration officials plan to open the first new immigrant detention center of President Donald Trump’s second term in Newark, New Jersey, officials said.

The 1,000-bed site will be located at a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, at a site known as Delaney Hall. The site will be used to grow ICE's detention capacity in the Northeast, the agency said.

“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,” ICE Director Caleb Vitello said in a statement.

The announcement comes as the number of people in detention facilities is on the rise. As of Feb. 9, there were 41,169 people detained in ICE facilities, according to the latest agency data. Immigration experts and ICE workers, past and present, have said that a lack of detention space would hamper the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The majority of those in detention have no criminal history, and fewer than a third have criminal convictions, according to the ICE data.

Local immigrant advocates have said they worry the newly reopened site will lead to a greater ICE presence in New Jersey and surrounding areas.

“ This is going to be devastating, not just for our state, but for the entire region,” said Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

The GEO Group, a private prison contractor, will operate the site under a 15-year, $1.2 billion contract, according to the federal government’s contracting database. The GEO Group plans to open the detention center in the second half of the year. The site is expected to generate $60 million in revenue in its first year of operations, the company said.

The GEO Group owns the site and will provide security, maintenance, food service, medical care and legal counsel, business leaders said in the company’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

“We are continuing to prepare for what we believe is an unprecedented opportunity to help the federal government meet its expanded immigration enforcement priorities,” George C. Zoley, executive chair of the GEO Group, said in a statement.

The Trump administration has said its immigration agents are mainly targeting the “worst” criminals. But ICE’s enforcement surge has largely targeted immigrants without criminal histories, according to a data analysis by immigration researcher Austin Kocher.

The Delaney Hall site's reopening will roughly double ICE's detention capacity in New York and New Jersey.

ICE currently has three detention centers in New York: a site in Buffalo as well as the Orange and Clinton county jails. Together, those sites are currently housing about 620 detainees, according to the latest agency data. Another detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, currently houses about 270 people.

The GEO Group was previously contracted to house up to 450 immigration detainees at the Delaney Hall site from 2011 to 2017, according to court records.

ICE has been planning a facility in Newark for years, long before Trump came to power in January. In May 2023, ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, solicited information about potential immigration detention sites near Newark, according to court records. ICE also solicited applications for an immigration detention center contract near Newark last summer.

A New Jersey state law passed in 2021 prohibits state and local governments and private detention facilities from entering into, renewing or expanding immigration detention contracts. However, a federal judge struck down part of the law in a 2023 decision, allowing private prison contractor CoreCivic to continue operating an immigration detention center in Elizabeth.

Last April, a federal judge issued a similar ruling in a case brought by GEO Group, which allowed the company to operate an immigration detention center at its Delaney Hall site.