Outrage, Lawsuit In NJ After ICE Transfers 30 Immigrant Detainees

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Federal authorities transferred dozens of immigration detainees in New Jersey to unknown locations on Tuesday, raising a bitter outcry from their family members and inspiring a class-action lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The 30 detainees were being held under the jurisdiction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark. Their final destinations are unknown, a county spokesperson told NJSpotlight.

Essex County officials announced plans to end their controversial, multi-million-dollar contract to house ICE detainees in April. The goal is to have "zero" federal detainees left at the prison by Aug. 23. County spokespeople said it's now up to ICE to decide where the detainees housed at the prison will be moved.

It was a decision praised by many immigration advocates, although others pointed out that officials are planning to replace them with hundreds of prisoners from nearby Union County.

Since then, the number of ICE detainees at the Newark facility has been dropping – down to its current total of 76 men, The Guardian reported. However, unless they’re released, which many of their family members are demanding, the remaining detainees may end up being transferred to other prisons across the nation, possibly hundreds of miles away.

It’s “cruel,” some say.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it launched a federal class-action lawsuit, which seeks to immediately block the long-distance transfer of ICE detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility.

The lawsuit cites violations of due process and the Immigration and Nationality Act. Advocates are asking the court to prevent ICE from transferring detainees who are represented by counsel to facilities more than 100 miles away.

The case was brought by the national ACLU, the ACLU of New Jersey, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.

“When facilities close, ICE routinely transfers detained immigrants to remote spots across the country — in particular to Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and other places in the Deep South,” the ACLU stated.

“The result is that they are transferred often hundreds of miles from their families, support networks and attorneys,” the group said, adding that the detainees could end up in jurisdictions that place them at a much higher risk of being deported.

It isn’t the first time that the ACLU has taken up this type of battle; it sued the Donald Trump administration more than 400 times. But Wednesday’s lawsuit is their first challenge to an immigration decision made since President Joe Biden took office. And what’s been taking place in Essex County isn’t a “Trump hold-over,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

“True to form, we will sue any administration — Democrat or Republican — and hold them accountable when they take positions that violate civil liberties and civil rights,” Romero said.

“This may be one of the first lawsuits filed against the Biden administration by advocacy groups, but I’m guessing it won’t be the last,” Romero added.

ACLU New Jersey Executive Director Amol Sinha agreed.

“Transferring hundreds of people far away from their families and attorneys violates the rights and dignity of New Jerseyans, and we’re calling on the courts to stop this policy of gratuitous cruelty,” Sinha said.

“We have a duty to allow people to await their immigration proceedings in communities rather than in detention, to avoid disrupting lives and depriving people of their constitutional rights,” Sinha urged.

A spokesperson for ICE's Newark office told Patch that the agency can't comment on the ACLU's pending litigation.

He offered the following statement regarding Tuesday's transfers:

"ICE routinely manages bed space on a national level. This most recent transfer is due to a request by the Essex County Correctional Facility to depopulate the remaining ICE detainees. The location of ICE detainees can be found on the ICE detainee locator on www.ice.gov, based on A# or [date of birth] and nationality."

Other civil rights activists have blasted the way the early morning transfers took place, characterizing them as “extremely violent,” with detainees allegedly “dragged out of their dorms and maced for refusing to leave.”

An ICE spokesperson disputed their claim, telling Patch that no detainees were forcibly removed or maced.

Members of the Abolish ICE NY-NJ Coalition gathered outside the prison on Tuesday in solidarity with the detainees, who they say had recently launched a hunger strike in protest – a tactic they’ve used before to raise awareness about conditions at the jail.

• See related article: Prison Hunger Strikes Continue In NJ As ICE Detainees Fear COVID
• See related article: NJ Hunger Striker Is Risking His Life Protesting ICE, Family Says

“The Abolish ICE NY-NJ Coalition condemns these transfers and the Biden administration for its role in the transfers,” said Yosi Badie, an advocate with the group.

“By transferring folks to different immigrant prisons outside of the state, the government is reversing the progress made by New Jersey communities and lawmakers who are close to enacting historic legislation to end the state’s involvement in the inhumane immigration detention system,” Badie said, referring to a proposed law that would ban prisons in New Jersey from making deals to hold federal immigration detainees.

“ICE maintains the authority to release the people under its custody at any time,” Badie added, a point that county officials have also made.

• See related article: We Lack The Authority To Release ICE Detainees, Essex Freeholders Say

Family members and advocates have been relentlessly protesting for years to get ICE detainees released at the prison. In addition to freeholder meetings, another favorite target among protesters has been ICE's office in Newark, which helped to deport hundreds of undocumented immigrants a month before the pandemic hit.

• See related article: NJ Irish Refugee's Deportation Is 'Shameful,' Senator Says

Nationwide, ICE detention numbers have “increased significantly” since Biden took office, according to the Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) a research organization at Syracuse University.

There were 24,463 detainees in ICE custody across the U.S., according to data released on June 11 – up from 14,195 at the start of the Biden administration.

About 78 percent of those detainees “have no criminal record,” TRAC stated.

In addition to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, ICE also currently houses detainees at three other prisons.

As of Tuesday, there were 38 detainees at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, 32 at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, and 95 detainees at the Elizabeth Detention Center, which is run by CoreCivic, an ICE spokesperson told NJSpotlight.

Last year, courts ordered the release of many immigrant detainees imprisoned across the state due to the coronavirus pandemic. Detainees remained under house arrest while they awaited their deportation proceedings.

By the end of 2020, the population at the Essex County Correctional Facility had dropped to about 200 detainees. But before the pandemic, the prison routinely held upwards of 800 ICE detainees at a time as recently as 2018 – which earned the county $124 per person, every day.

Essex County officials issued a coronavirus update regarding the prison population on June 24, which can be seen below.

• See related article: Stuck In Jail During A Pandemic; Coronavirus Hits NJ Prisons
• See related article: NJ Releases 2,000 Prisoners To Slow Coronavirus; ICE Seizes 88

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