Group rallies at Elizabeth Detention Center in protest of ICE
Activists have been protesting the conditions at the Elizabeth Detention Center and calling for it to close.
More Stories
A rally in Elizabeth follows recent ICE raids and the announcement about a new immigration detention facility set to open this year.
Activists have been protesting the conditions at the Elizabeth Detention Center and calling for it to close. Now they're facing the Delaney Hall facility in Newark that is set to reopen as an immigrant detention center.
Activists say those being kept at EDC, owned by CoreCivic are suffering inhumane conditions with overcrowding. They say the prison, which has space for about 250, is housing about 350.
"We were told there was a period of time when there wasn't drinking water accessible, that people were surviving just eating bread," said Li Adorno, with Movimiento Cosecha.
RELATED: Immigration populations in New Jersey told to 'know your rights' amid ICE raids
Advocates for immigrants say opening another detention center means it will only be filled with even more prisoners. Plans to reopen Newark's Delaney Hall as a 1,000-bed immigration detention center came after private corporation GEO Group signed a 15-year contract with ICE.
"There’s no need for any ICE detention. People can continue their immigration case outside without being incarcerated," said Haydi Torres, with Cosecha New Jersey.
According to ICE, "The facility will expand ICE’s detention capacity in the northeast, enhancing the agency’s ability to manage the region’s growing enforcement and removal operations."
Local organizations are asking lawmakers to help get the Immigration Trust Act signed to make it easier for immigrants to seek help, regardless of their status.
