What is Delaney Hall?
Delaney Hall is a large immigration detention facility located right here in Newark’s South Ward. It holds up to 1,196 people who have been detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is run not by the government, but by a private company called GEO Group, under a 15-year federal contract worth over a billion dollars. It reopened in May 2025 after being closed since 2017.
How did we get here?
From the start, Mayor Ras Baraka and the city of Newark raised concerns that GEO Group did not have the proper permits to operate the facility. The city sued. Federal authorities pushed back and the facility opened anyway. In December 2025, a 41-year-old Haitian man named Jean Wilson Brutus died at University Hospital, just one day after being brought to Delaney Hall. ICE said he died of natural causes. Advocates and elected officials demanded answers and called for the facility to be shut down.
What sparked the recent protests?
Around May 22, 2026, hundreds of detainees inside Delaney Hall launched a hunger and labor strike. They refused to eat or work in protest of conditions inside, including spoiled food, lack of medical care, and what they described as unsanitary and unsafe living conditions. Word spread to families and advocates outside, and daily protests began. The Department of Homeland Security denied there was an organized hunger strike.
What are people saying about the conditions?
Accounts differ sharply depending on who you ask. Detainees and their lawyers have described maggots in food, spoiled milk, inadequate medical care for elderly and pregnant women, and retaliation by guards. New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport filed a lawsuit demanding state health inspectors be allowed inside for a full inspection. Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew toured the facility and said he saw clean dorms, on-site doctors, a gym, a soccer field, and a law library, calling the conditions better than what most people in the world live in. The state of New Jersey has been denied full access to conduct its own inspection.
What about the protests and the curfew?
Protests outside Delaney Hall grew over several days, and some nights turned tense, with clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. On May 31, Mayor Baraka imposed a nightly curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. within a half-mile of the facility. Governor Mikie Sherrill deployed New Jersey State Police to manage the area outside, replacing federal ICE agents, in an attempt to lower the temperature. Some of the people arrested during the clashes were from out of state. Peaceful protest has continued throughout.
What about those outside agitators?
It is true that some people traveling from other states, including New York and Pennsylvania, joined the protests. Governor Sherrill publicly called them out, saying they were not helping the situation. At the same time, many of the people outside Delaney Hall every day are Newark residents, family members of detainees, faith leaders, and local advocates who have been there since the beginning. Both things can be true.
Who is GEO Group and why does that matter?
GEO Group is a for-profit private prison company. In just the first quarter of 2026, the company reported nearly $38.3 million in net profit, almost double what it made the same time last year, much of it driven by new ICE contracts. Detainees inside Delaney Hall cook, clean, and maintain the facility, often for as little as one dollar a day.
Where does Mayor Baraka stand?
Mayor Baraka has been consistent. He wants Delaney Hall closed. He has called the conditions inside unacceptable, expanded the city’s lawsuit against GEO Group, and imposed the curfew to protect public safety. He has also been arrested himself outside the facility, with charges that were later dropped.
What happens next?
New Jersey has now sued GEO Group to force a full health inspection. The city of Newark is expanding its own legal action. Protests continue. The hunger strike, now nearly two weeks in, is ongoing. Federal authorities say the facility will not close.
Every person in Delaney Hall has a story — and many of them are our neighbors. Newark is not a backdrop to this debate. It is the ground where it is playing out, block by block, family by family. Telling that story accurately, fully, and without looking away is not just journalism. It’s community work. We ain’t free until we are all free.
