Newark should not be home to a massive immigrant detention center. Period.

We are calling on the federal government to cancel its $1 billion contract with GEO Group and shut down plans to use Delaney Hall for immigration enforcement.

This facility was quietly transformed from a halfway house into a 1,000-bed detention site—without public input, without local approval, and without proper permits. The people of Newark, including Mayor Ras Baraka, have made it clear: we do not want our city used to lock up immigrants.

Delaney Hall represents everything that’s wrong with a profit-driven approach to immigration. GEO Group, a private prison company with a long history of abuse and neglect, stands to make millions while families are torn apart and due process is trampled.

Immigrant detention is not a solution, it is a crisis. Detaining people for seeking safety, overstaying visas, or living undocumented lives does nothing to improve public safety. It only traumatizes communities, criminalizes survival, and wastes taxpayer dollars that could go toward legal services, housing, or education.

This is not about politics. It’s about humanity.

We urge decision-makers at all levels of government to stop the opening of Delaney Hall as a detention center. Newark deserves better. Immigrants deserve better. Our country deserves better.

Photo: AP Seth Wenig