March 2, 2025 – Newark, NJ – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is gearing up for what could be a sweeping crackdown on criminal illegal immigrants in New Jersey, with the agency announcing the imminent reopening of the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark. The move, part of President Donald Trump’s renewed push for mass deportations, has heightened tensions in the state, unsettling migrant communities and prompting fierce resistance from Democratic leaders determined to preserve New Jersey’s sanctuary state status.
The 1,000-bed Delaney Hall facility, located in an industrial area near Newark Liberty International Airport, will significantly expand ICE’s detention capacity in the Northeast, dwarfing the state’s only other facility in Elizabeth, which holds just 300 detainees.
ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello hailed the reopening as a critical step in fulfilling Trump’s mandate.
“This detention center is the first to open under the new administration,” Vitello said in a statement. “Its proximity to an international airport streamlines logistics and enhances our ability to arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens from our communities.”
The facility, operated by private prison contractor GEO Group under a 15-year, $1 billion contract, is slated to resume operations this spring after being shuttered since 2017.
Tom Homan, Trump’s appointee as “border czar,” has vowed to prioritize New Jersey in the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Homan declared, “New Jersey’s got a problem—criminal illegals running free in a sanctuary state. We’re coming in hard to clean it up.”
Sources within ICE suggest the Newark facility’s reactivation signals plans for a large-scale sweep targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, a move that could ensnare hundreds across the state’s urban centers like Newark, Jersey City, and Paterson.
The operation’s ripple effects may also spill into neighboring New York City, just miles away, where officials are already bracing for increased enforcement pressure.
The announcement has sent shockwaves through New Jersey’s migrant communities, home to an estimated 475,000 undocumented immigrants. In Newark, where roughly one-third of residents are immigrants, fear is palpable.
“People are uneasy—nobody knows who’s next,” said a community organizer with a New Jersey immigrant justice organization. “This isn’t just about criminals; it’s about families getting caught in the crossfire.”
Recent ICE raids, including a January 23 operation at a Newark seafood warehouse that netted three arrests, have only deepened the anxiety.
New Jersey Democrats, led by Governor Phil Murphy, are mounting a fierce counteroffensive. Murphy, who signed a 2021 law banning public and private facilities from contracting with ICE—a measure partially struck down by federal courts—blasted the reopening as “a direct attack on our values.”
In a statement Thursday, his spokesman Tyler Jones said, “We are extremely disappointed by the Trump administration’s move to open this facility in one of our most diverse cities. We’ve fought to limit these entities before and will continue to do so.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka echoed the sentiment, calling it “lawlessness” and vowing to explore “every legal and political avenue” to block the facility’s operation.
Protests erupted outside Delaney Hall over the weekend, with dozens of activists and Democratic lawmakers rallying against what they call an “inhumane” escalation.
“This is about profit, not safety,” said Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who represents parts of Newark. “Privately owned detention centers erode trust and lead to abuses—this contract flies in the face of our community’s will.” The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey labeled the move “a serious threat,” warning of “unconstitutional, xenophobic mass detention” under Trump’s agenda.
The GEO Group, which has spent $5 million upgrading Delaney Hall, stands to gain significantly, projecting annual revenues of $60 million from the ICE deal. Critics, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), have slammed the company’s track record, citing past allegations of inhumane conditions and detainee mistreatment at its facilities nationwide. “This is a $1 billion check to a corporation with a history of neglect,” Booker said.
For New Jersey, a state long proud of its sanctuary policies, the stakes are high. The reopening not only quadruples ICE’s local detention capacity but also positions Newark as a potential hub for regional deportations, threatening nearby New York City and its surrounding suburbs. As Homan’s pledge looms, the battle between federal enforcement and state resistance is set to intensify, with migrants caught in the middle and Democrats digging in for a fight.
