close
close
orange

This is why it is still open

Vaseline

play

New Jersey continues to appeal a federal court ruling allowing the state’s last immigrant detention center to remain open.

Earlier this month, the New Jersey attorney general’s office filed a 33-page response to a brief filed by the federal government in March with the 3rd District U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. That letter supported the position of the prison company CoreCivic, which operates the EDC, arguing that the Elizabeth facility should remain open because a state law that could be interpreted to close it down is unconstitutional and is being superseded by federal law.

The law, AB 5207, which was passed by the state Legislature in 2021, prohibits local jails from entering into new contracts to house federal immigration detainees.

The EDC, located near Newark Airport, is used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and can accommodate up to 300 people. Detainees are usually asylum seekers, others awaiting resolution of immigration cases and those accused of a crime.

Immigration advocates called for its closure during a virtual news conference on April 19, as they have in recent years.

Katy Sastre, the interim director of First Friends of New Jersey and New York, said it is a facility with repressive conditions and policies that make it a horrific place for detention.

“It’s very arbitrary how people are treated, but the norm seems to be abuse,” Sastre said.

A spokesperson for CoreCivic denied this.

What happens at EDC?

Sastre said during the news conference hosted by the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, based on information collected by the First Friends of New Jersey and New York, that 221 people were being held at the EDC as of April 1. Emilio Dabul, an ICE spokesperson, said in an email that 244 people were being held at the center as of April 25.

Sastre said inmates at the center told First Friends there are no windows and no yard. She recalled a 21-year-old inmate who had spent six months at the center and who continually brought up the fact that he saw nothing but artificial light.

“Light bulbs, he kept talking about light bulbs. It clearly violates several international standards regarding the humane treatment of detainees,” Sastre said. “I think the impact on someone’s mental health really cannot be overstated. A young man who suffered from depression and was kept in a cage with fluorescent lighting for six months.”

Sastre then pointed out some of the center’s other negatives, including limited visiting hours for inmates visiting family, long wait times for visits, attorneys not having access to their inmate clients’ medical records, and delays of at least a month in receiving their mail by detainees. especially money orders for purchasing commission items.

This report on conditions inside the center is at odds with ICE’s most recent inspection report from the EDC.

In May of last year, ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight conducted a follow-up inspection of the detention center to address food supply and environmental health and safety deficiencies found during a previous inspection in November 2022. ODO found that the shortcomings no longer existed.

According to the May 2023 inspection report, ODO inspectors also interviewed 30 detainees, all of whom “voluntarily agreed to participate,” and none “accused of discrimination, mistreatment or abuse.” Most also indicated that they were satisfied with the facility services, with the exception of two female detainees.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, refuted claims about conditions at the center in an email to NorthJersey.com with the following points:

  • There is an outdoor recreation area that provides natural light and the opportunity for detainees to exercise and exercise.
  • Visitation takes place seven days a week and each inmate may have one hour of visitors each day if he/she wishes.
  • Inmates will also have the opportunity to participate in video visits with their families via tablets provided by the facilities. Tablets are readily available in the residential units and throughout the facility.
  • There are policies and procedures that apply to attorneys requesting inmates’ medical records. CoreCivis is not aware of attorneys being denied access to medical records if this process is followed.
  • Inmate mail is delivered by the facility’s mailroom staff Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

A lawsuit is still pending

In January, New Jersey filed a 66-page brief in federal court seeking to overturn federal District Judge Robert Kirsch’s August decision to uphold an injunction sought by CoreCivic against the state ban that would have closed the Elizabeth Detention Center to make.

Kirsch ruled that New Jersey’s statute was “unconstitutional” when applied to the federal government’s operation of the Elizabeth Detention Center. He also said in his ruling that if the New Jersey facility were closed due to state law and a neighboring state were to pass a similar law, it would “result in nothing short of chaos” for immigration enforcement.

In the brief, attorneys for the state said the district court “erred” in ruling that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives CoreCivic “wasteful constitutional immunity” from the statute New Jersey cited in its attempt to win the Elizabeth center to close.

Since then, there has been legal back and forth between the state and federal government.

In March, attorneys for the federal government, including New Jersey U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, filed a brief in support of Judge Kirsch’s ruling. In their letter, the attorneys argue that state law AB 5207 “prohibits the operation of a federal facility” and “clearly poses an obstacle to ICE operations, and that the state makes no serious effort to demonstrate otherwise.”

The state’s 38-page counterbrief, filed April 17, states that state law “does not prevent ICE from detaining immigrants in federal facilities; it only prohibits companies like CoreCivic from doing so in private facilities.”

Both CoreCivic and ICE declined to comment on pending litigation.

Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the top news from your local community, subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @ricardokaul

Related Posts