New Jersey on Tuesday sued the private operator of the ICE immigration detention center in Newark, alleging that state health officials were blocked from an inspection amid reports about spoiled food, unsanitary conditions and poor medical care.
The 18-page lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Essex County, seeks full access to Delaney Hall, including sleeping areas, showers and toilets, medical facilities and ventilation equipment. State inspectors were permitted to visit only food-service areas on May 28, according to the complaint.
The defendant, Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group Inc., owns and operates Delaney Hall as a detention center under a $1 billion, 15-year contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. About 300 people suspected of entering the country illegally are housed in the building.
“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,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a statement.
Geo Group did not respond to NJ Spotlight News’ request for comment. On X.com, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said New Jersey inspectors spent 90 minutes in the food-service area.
“We will continue to grant state and local inspectors access to the facility where appropriate,” the department posted. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport appears particularly concerned about medical care at Delaney. On May 28, a detained person was brought to University Hospital with tuberculosis, and a staff doctor asked the state to review Delaney’s infection-control protocol, according to the lawsuit. The complaint alleges that medical personnel and Delaney employees and visitors potentially are at risk of spreading disease.
The lawsuit comes amid a crackdown on violent demonstrations outside Delaney Hall, where peaceful protestors over the weekend were joined by crowds showing support for ICE agents and President Donald Trump’s expansive deportation agenda.
Credit: (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)Gov. Mikie Sherrill dispatched state troopers on Friday to keep demonstrators in zones – an arrangement, she said, that respected both sides’ First Amendment rights, reduced the chances of violence and maintained safety in an industrial area with heavy truck traffic.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also ordered city officers to patrol the scene and instituted a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew within a half-mile radius of Delaney Hall, on Doremus Avenue. At times, though, police and demonstrators clashed, with police using horses, riot gear and noxious spray to repel advancing crowds. On Sunday, more than 60 people were arrested, according to the Attorney General’s Office. On Tuesday, Baraka lifted the curfew, citing a lack of arrests the night before and the need “to allow full expression of the American right to free speech to to peacefully assemble.”
Baraka, though, remains opposed to Delaney.
“We believe that it should be shut down because we have actual irrefutable evidence now that the place is uninhabitable,” Baraka told CNN anchor Kate Bolduan in an interview Tuesday. Newark sued Geo Group in April 2025 after city officials were denied full access.
Since the detention facility opened 13 months ago, immigrants have shared a series of open letters via the website Lahuelga.com. The operator “fails to meet the basic conditions necessary to protect our health and our lives,” read the latest dispatch, on May 26. Their list of grievances included rotten and worm-laden food, inadequate ventilation and compulsory work details with little to no compensation.
“If you’re sick, you have to submit a request that takes two weeks to be answered – or you never get a response at all,” the author wrote. “Nurses refuse to treat you right away. They only prescribe Tylenol for all ailments. The nurses’ exact words: We’re not a PHARMACY.”
