Essex County Nixes ICE Jail Contract, But Some Feel ‘Gaslighted’

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County is ending its controversial prison deal to house federal immigration detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a move that many activists have been demanding for years. But some advocates say the announcement is a bittersweet victory, and that they feel “gaslighted” by the decision to replace the ICE detainees with inmates from Union County.

Over the past years, the county has taken in tens of millions of dollars in revenue in exchange for holding ICE detainees at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, in addition to its other inmates.

But last week, Essex County officials said the deal is off the table, and that starting Aug. 23, there will be "zero" ICE detainees left at the Essex County Correctional Facility.

According to county spokespeople, it will be up to ICE to decide where the 165 detainees currently housed at the prison will be moved.

Essex County expects to "basically offset" the lost revenue via a recent agreement to house hundreds of inmates for nearby Union County, officials said.

• See related article: Essex County Ending Controversial Prison Contract With ICE
• See related article: Essex County Makes Deal To Hold Inmates From Union County Jail

Several immigrant advocacy groups in North Jersey have since issued statements about the upcoming “depopulation” of ICE detainees in Newark.

‘ALL OUR FRIENDS DESERVE TO BE HOME’

First Friends of NJ & NY released the following statement on Friday:

“First Friends of NJ & NY welcomes the news from the Essex County Executive and the Commissioners that Essex will no longer be incarcerating people for ICE by August 23rd at the latest. While First Friends supports any effort to remove ICE from our communities and end detention, our ultimate goal is for everyone in detention to be released, not transferred to other facilities. While we are disappointed to have learned of this through the press, it is our hope that Essex County will recognize its continuing responsibility to those in their custody. Towards this end, we urge them to partner closely with us and other immigrant rights organizations, attorneys, and family members to ensure that no matter what the transition will be, it will go as smoothly as possible. People in ICE detention should not be made to fear losing contact with family members, lawyers, or other service providers. Should our friends be transferred, we will do our best to stay in contact and keep our volunteer visitors and pen-pals informed. Now more than ever, our friends in detention at Essex will need the support of our staff, volunteers, and everyone in our community.”

Organizers continued:

“We also hope that the Essex County Executive and the Commissioners will join us in urging the New Jersey State Legislature to pass A5207/S3361, which will prohibit the renewal or expansion of current ICE contracts and prohibit the signing of new contracts. It is imperative if we are to end the inhumane, unjust, and unnecessary practice of immigration detention, that ICE cannot simply replace these detention beds with new contracts in our state. Lastly, we call on Hudson and Bergen Counties to join Essex and the counties across the country that are ending their contracts. All our friends deserve to be home, in their communities, surrounded by their families, not incarcerated indefinitely simply because of their immigration status.”

‘ICE DETENTION IS INHUMANE’

Make the Road New Jersey issued the following statement on Thursday:

“ICE detention is inhumane, dangerous, and has caused too much harm to our communities and their families. Essex County’s decision to end the contract is the result of years of organizing and accountability. Still, collecting revenue through a contract with Union County corrections is not progress. We urge Essex County to release all detainees to their families and community.”

The group continued:

“We urge Bergen and Hudson County to follow Essex County’s example and end their contracts with ICE immediately. The New Jersey state legislature must also enact legislation to ensure ICE cannot open any additional facilities in New Jersey.”

‘NO CELEBRATION’

New Jersey Alliance For Immigrant Justice executive director Amy Torres released a statement about the ICE contract last week.

Torres wrote:

“While we have long called for the termination of the Essex County ICE contract, there is no celebration in the fact that this decision was made in order to further profit off of incarceration and detention. The choice to end the ICE contract in order to fill beds with people from Union County is a decision where no one wins -- where families will continue to be separated, where inhumane conditions and lack of accountability within the jail systems will continue, and where counties will continue to profit off of pain and punishment.”

‘GASLIGHTING THE COMMUNITY’

The Abolish ICE NY-NJ Coalition also issued a statement about Essex County’s decision last week, writing that its members “firmly oppose both ICE detention in the Essex County Correctional Facility and the replacement of the ICE contract with the Union County contract.”

Organizers said:

“Essex County, New Jersey announced on April 28, 2021 that it will be ending its contract with ICE to detain immigrants in Essex County Correctional Facility. This is, in part, due to the long-term organizing of detained people, their families, and other advocates and community members. But it is also a result of Essex County signing an $11.3 million contract with Union County to incarcerate people from their county in Essex County jail. It is clear that Essex County is not decarcerating, but merely replacing immigrants in ICE custody with people in the Union County criminal justice system’s custody. Within the justification of their closure, County officials sought to continue to deny and gaslight the community regarding the rampant sexual, physical, and mental abuses systemic to the facility. To be clear, Essex County's decision to sever its existing ICE contract is not based in immigrant justice but rather that the criminalization and exploitation of immigrants is no longer seen as profitable. Essex County has made a clear commitment to the prison-industrial-complex.”

The group continued:

“First, the coalition opposes the continued detention of any and all people in the Essex County Correctional Facility, and all jails, prisons and immigrant detention. We believe in community not cages! The prison-industrial-complex is rooted within national legacies of anti-black racism which date back to antebellum slavery and indigenous genocide. As abolitionists grappling with the carceral state’s manifestation within the immigration arena, we know that criminalization and policing serve as the first step toward deportation. Furthermore, we oppose profiteering from incarceration. Commissioner Robert Mercado once told some of our members that Essex County is in the “incarceration business,” but that is precisely the problem. Housing inmates for Union County is merely another way for this county to continue balancing its budget on the backs of working-class people of color. Essex County has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to provide for the public health, welfare, and safety of people incarcerated in the jail. No one should be subjected to that medical neglect, abuse, and family separation. Essex County, and all communities, must stop relying on incarceration to fund their local economies.”

Organizers added:

“Secondly, we demand that Essex County do everything in its power to ensure that the 165 people currently in ICE detention in Essex County jail are released to their families, not transferred to other ICE detention facilities, as they state they plan to do. While Essex County officials have long offered an insincere argument that their ICE contract helps those detained by keeping them close to their families and lawyers, they have done little to provide actual assistance, allotting less than 2% of their annual ICE revenue toward legal resources only after years of community protest. Even earlier this month, Essex County administrators raised the specter of transfers as a reason to continue the ICE contract, and yet now that the County has cancelled the contract and announced all 165 people in ICE detention will be transferred, they are silent on this issue. Now is the time for Essex County officials to work with lawyers, advocates, and those inside to use every measure at their disposal to avoid transfers. The Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition demands that Essex County dedicate resources and personnel to ensure people currently in ICE detention in their jail are released.”

“In short, we reject Essex County’s carceral solution to its self-created problem of extricating itself from its chosen path of collaboration with ICE’s racist agenda of detention and deportation,” the group stated. “We demand more imaginative visions of justice.”

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