New Jersey sued the owners of Newark migrant jail Delaney Hall Tuesday to force the company to allow state health inspectors inside the detention center that has been at the center of claims that detainees are living in inhumane conditions.
The complaint, filed in state Superior Court in Essex County, asks a judge to order the company, Geo Group, to allow state inspectors access to the jail’s medical unit, sleeping quarters, shower and toilet facilities, and HVAC systems. Gov. Mikie Sherrill said when state inspectors visited the jail last week, Geo Group staff allowed them access to food service areas only.
“If the GEO Group — with a $1 billion government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump Administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building,” Sherrill, a Democrat who took office in January, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The people of New Jersey deserve transparency and accountability, and I will continue using all the power of this office to advocate for the detainees and their families.”
The lawsuit comes on the 12th day of unrest outside the detention center. Delaney Hall, which opened as an immigration detention center in May 2025, has been the site of daily protests since hundreds of detainees inside said they launched a hunger and labor strike to call attention to conditions inside, citing maggots in the food, spoiled milk, and a lack of medical attention for the elderly and pregnant detainees.
Some of those protests have escalated to violent confrontations with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and New Jersey State Police, leading police to arrest dozens of people. Newark city officials instituted a curfew starting at 9 p.m. on Sunday to help deter demonstrators.
Numerous members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, have visited and toured the facility in recent weeks.
Sherrill herself has faced criticism from some protesters who said state troopers used excessive force against them and the media.
The state argues in the 18-page complaint that state law gives the state health commissioner the right to conduct full inspections of any facility, including privately owned detention centers, when they believe public health laws are being violated. Businesses that serve food are also required by state regulation to allow inspectors into all parts of a building, according to the complaint.
State officials are requesting an expedited hearing in an attempt to force Geo Group to open Delaney Hall to health officials as soon as possible. They say the inspection would allow the state to determine whether the practices inside of the facility pose a serious risk to detainees, employees or contractors working there, or the general public.
“Geo Group must allow our state’s health inspectors to conduct a full inspection of Delaney Hall. The reports of unsanitary and unsafe conditions inside Delaney Hall are extremely concerning, and Geo Group — like any other business and facility in New Jersey — must follow the law,” Attorney General Jen Davenport said in a statement.
A Geo Group spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation have entered the facility to see the conditions for themselves. Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver, Analilia Mejia, and Frank Pallone have met with detainees multiple times over the last two weeks and have condemned the conditions at Delaney Hall. On Monday, Rep. Jeff Van Drew was the first Republican member of New Jersey’s House delegation to enter the jail, and he said he was impressed with what he saw inside, pointing to libraries, an outdoor soccer field, and “a better gym than the one I go to.”
Menendez suggested that Van Drew was mischaracterizing conditions.
“So Jeff Van Drew (the guy who said drones over NJ came from an Iranian mothership to attack our state) is who Republicans picked as their eyes & ears inside Delaney Hall (after ICE released pregnant women & 18 yos)? Got it,” Menendez said on social media.
Tuesday’s lawsuit documents a timeline of escalating concerns inside the jail dating to June 2025, when detainees reported going without food for nearly a day. In September, patients sick with Covid-19 described being kept in cold rooms with no blankets or pillows, and in December, they said staff denied them basic toiletries, according to the complaint.
On May 13, the state Department of Health received a letter signed by 300 detainees who reported Covid and flu cases inside the facility and said people with diabetes and heart conditions were going untreated, according to the complaint.
When detainees launched their hunger strike, the state received a complaint from a doctor who reported a Delaney Hall detainee had been admitted to University Hospital in Newark with a case of tuberculosis and asked the state to investigate the facility’s infection control practices, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says state officials attempted to enter Delaney Hall on May 27, were denied entry, then were allowed to inspect the food services area only the next day. Jail officials said any further access would require permission from ICE.
Newark officials have been separately suing Geo Group for over a year, arguing the facility never obtained the proper permits to operate. In a press conference outside the jail Tuesday, Mayor Ras Baraka , a Democrat who was arrested at Delaney Hall last year and accused of trespassing (the charge was quickly dropped), called again for the jail to close.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
