CRI goes to Delaney Hall
On June 2, 2025 a few members of the Cooper River Indivisible Immigration Committee went on a fact finding mission to Delaney Hall in Newark. Delaney Hall is an immigration detention center located in Essex County. It made national news when Newark mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and charged with trespassing when he and a few members of Congress went there on an oversight visit and were denied entry.
The hall is a 1000-bed immigrant detention center operated by the Geo Group (a company that runs private prisons). In February of 2025 the Geo group was awarded a one billion dollar contract by ICE to use the facility for immigrant detention. This facility is now the largest detention center on the East Coast.
The members of the Immigration Committee went to Delaney Hall to meet up with other groups that are working to spotlight the actions of the facility. These contacts will be vital in helping us learn how we can support their efforts from down here in South Jersey. Some links to the materials that we picked up today can found below