New report examines the community-led movement that closed three ICE detention sites at three New Jersey county jails and offers strategies for today’s rapidly changing enforcement landscape
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact | Elise Hanks
elise.hanks@law.cuny.edu | 718.340-4010
Queens, NY – CUNY School of Law’s Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic (INRC), together with the Abolish ICE NY–NJ Coalition, has released a detailed report on the 2021 grassroots campaign that forced three county jails in New Jersey to terminate their ICE detention contracts. The report, Shut It Down! The 2021 Grassroots Movement to Abolish ICE Detention in New Jersey, draws on interviews with directly impacted people, organizers, and attorneys who shaped the closure effort.
The publication arrives amid intensified immigration enforcement nationwide, including in New Jersey, where the Coalition notes a backlash marked by private prison companies aggressively pursuing new contracts. Federal detention capacity is expanding: Delaney Hall has recently reopened with space for up to 1,000 people, and there are reported plans for a federal tent camp at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst near Trenton, which could become a sprawling facility holding up to 3,000 people per day. At the same time, detained individuals are facing faster transfers and heightened retaliation, often within hours of speaking out.
“This report reflects years of organizing by people held inside these facilities and by community members committed to ending detention,” said Professor Talia Peleg, co-director of INRC. “The horrific conditions in detention we documented during the 2021 campaign have intensified and are reappearing in new forms, including a proposed tent camp in Southern New Jersey. Transfers are happening more quickly. The consequences of speaking publicly about grotesque living conditions, inadequate health care, lack of nutrition, and routine mistreatment have become more severe. The lessons from the 2021 campaign can help communities navigate this moment to resist the expansion of deadly immigration jails.”
“The movement that ended ICE contracts in New Jersey was led by people inside who risked their safety to expose abuse, and by communities who refused to look away,” said Tania Mattos, Organizer with Abolish ICE NY NJ. “As the federal government and private prison companies attempt to expand detention again, we’re carrying forward the lessons of 2021 to demand releases, stop transfers, and defend our communities from a renewed system of state violence.
What the Report Documents
Shut It Down! details how the coalition confronted local governments, private prison companies, and federal agencies that sustained the detention system. The report:
- Traces the organizing that emerged inside the facilities, including hunger strikes responding to medical neglect and prolonged isolation
- Explores how the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the multiple life-threatening conditions within immigration detention centers
- Describes the multilingual public education, direct action, and rapid-response work carried out by coalition members inside and outside of the facility
- Outlines how political pressure shifted local county decision-making
- Examines the legal landscape that followed the closures, including the state-level limits on new contracts and the subsequent federal litigation that preserved some private expansion
The report also includes first-hand accounts from people directly impacted by the detention centers including numerous leaders of hunger strikes and their family members. Among them is a survivor who was detained for 38 months and organized hunger strikes to protest inhumane conditions and human rights violations. This individual is now a plaintiff in ongoing litigation against Orange County Jail in NY.
Reportable Findings
The report identifies a set of eight demands drafted by those who were detained and delivered to ICE during the 2021 closures. These demands reflect both abolitionist goals and immediate needs related to transfer harms when closure is pursued. The demands address the importance of releases instead of transfers, protections against retaliation, and continuity of medical care in the event of transfer. At Hudson County Jail, for example, when only thirty-nine detainees remained at the facility, eight people were released as a result of organizing and advocacy efforts by the coalition. They also call for notification to families and counsel in advance of transfers, and push for stopping the use of solitary confinements. The list provides one of the clearest records to date of how people inside understood the system and how they sought to mitigate its harms. The report provides a model for other communities seeking to address the harms of immigration jails today and serves as a blueprint for providing meaningful support for those jailed within them
About the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic
INRC was one of the first immigration law clinics in the United States and has maintained a long-standing commitment to community-led partnership and movement lawyering. Student attorneys often have deep ties to immigrant communities and lived experience within the immigration system, which informs their legal practice and their engagement in systemic advocacy.
Access the Report
Download: Shut It Down! The 2021 Grassroots Movement to Abolish ICE Detention in New Jersey: https://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/clinical-programs/immigration/inrc-report-shut-it-down-the-2021-grassroots-movement-to-abolish-ice-detention-in-new-jersey/
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