ICE Detention Facilities Are A Massive Human Rights Violation. Those Protesting Are Being Brutalized.

For New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, it’s long past time to raise hell to force the closing of the brutal ICE detention facility Delaney Hall in Newark. Credible reports suggest Delaney — owned by a private prison company — is functioning more as a torture chamber than a regular jail. The infliction of gratuitous cruelty appears to be official policy.

I spoke today at a rally in New Jersey where dozens of community leaders demanded Delaney Hall be shut down once and for all and that New Jersey state police cease coordinating with ICE to attack peaceful protesters outside the facility. About 600 or so detainees inside have been on a hunger strike for 11 days to protest the horrid conditions. Reports indicate the food is rancid and infested with bugs. One full-time doctor serves the medical needs of all 900 detainees. The neglect puts hundreds of lives at risk.

Delaney Hall is a massive human rights violation. It could even be a basis for action by the International Criminal Court against US officials.

In a disturbing example of backwards-facing leadership, Governor Sherrill has allowed New Jersey state police to attack peaceful protesters outside the facility with tear gas and batons. That’s disgraceful. It’s also personal for me. The private company that owns the facility, the GEO Group, donates massively to Trump and has a business model that explits human rights abuses for profit. GEO Group employees under contract with the federal prison system subjected me to harassing “check in” phone calls day and night after Chevron orchestrated my 993-day house arrest for winning the landmark $10 billion pollution case in Ecuador. There were nights I couldn’t sleep more than two hours straight because of this company’s harassment.

New Jersey’s Attorney General, Jennifer Davenport, must open a criminal investigation of the GEO Group. Why the wait? The company clearly is violating the state’s criminal laws. The evidence from testimonies of those inside is overwhelming and proof enough. Videos of attacks by ICE on peaceful protestors are also potential evidence of criminality. Police should arrest the for-profit brutes from ICE and the GEO Group running the place, not the courageous protesters trying to hold them accountable for their abuses.

Thanks to Ben Dziobek and Climate Revolution New Jersey for their incredible work in organizing the protests and today’s action. More soon.