LIVE STOP ICE TERROR Activists Mark 1 Year of Deadly NJ ICE Prison
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Summary
Takeaways
- ❖Detainees at Delaney Hall ICE Prison endure inhumane conditions, including expired food, lack of medical attention, overcrowding, and verbal abuse from guards.
- ❖Geo Group, the for-profit operator, reported a 695% increase in profit ($254 million) last year, while families pay up to $180 per week for limited phone calls and must purchase basic necessities like blankets.
- ❖ICE agents have been accused of targeted harassment, surveillance, and intimidation against activists and their families, including property damage and sexual assault threats.
- ❖The death of a Haitian immigrant, Jean Wilson Brutus, at Delaney Hall remains unexplained, highlighting a severe lack of transparency and accountability.
- ❖Community groups like 'Eyes on ICE New Jersey' provide vital mutual aid, offering food, clothes, diapers, and legal assistance to families and detainees.
Insights
1Inhumane Conditions and Neglect at Delaney Hall
Detainees at Delaney Hall ICE Prison face severe and life-threatening conditions. Food is often uncooked or expired, leading to illness and significant weight loss. Medical care is severely delayed or denied, with one detainee waiting three weeks for treatment for vomiting and headaches. Overcrowding is rampant, with 400 people per unit and 10 people per room, lacking privacy and social interaction. Recreation time is minimal and dependent on guard mood, and basic amenities like libraries or workout facilities are non-existent.
Gabriella's husband lost 30 pounds in four months due to insufficient and expired food. Guards deny medication and infirmary access based on mood. Units house 400 people with 10 per room, offering no privacy. Recreation is limited to a half-hour if guards are 'in a good mood.'
2For-Profit Model Drives Systemic Abuse
The operation of ICE prisons by private corporations like Geo Group creates a profit incentive that directly contributes to inhumane conditions and financial exploitation. Geo Group reported a 695% increase in profit, reaching $254 million, largely from ICE contracts. This profit comes at the expense of detainees, who are given expired food and denied basic necessities unless families pay exorbitant fees. Families are forced to spend hundreds of dollars weekly for phone calls, and even for items like blankets and clothing.
Geo Group's profit increased by 695% to $254 million. Families pay $150-180 per week for 4-5 hours of phone calls. Detainees are processed in tank tops and must have family deposit money for shirts, sweaters, or blankets.
3Targeted Harassment and Intimidation by ICE
ICE agents engage in targeted surveillance, harassment, and intimidation against activists and their families, extending beyond undocumented immigrants. Deborah Gomez, an activist, describes multiple instances where ICE agents pulled her over, broke her attorney's car windows without a warrant, and threatened her and her family. Her husband and stepson were detained, with agents explicitly stating the actions were due to her activism. Agents have also made sexual assault threats and monitored her social media, leading to account deactivation.
Deborah Gomez was pulled over and told 'Deborah, go home' by nine agents. ICE agents broke her attorney's car windows with a crowbar. An ICE agent threatened, 'I have something coming for you' and 'When I come knocking at your house with a warrant, don't be surprised.' Her Facebook accounts with 1.6 billion views were deactivated after she went viral.
4Lack of Transparency and Accountability for Deaths
The death of detainees within ICE facilities, such as Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian national, often occurs without transparency or clear explanation. He died one day after being imprisoned at Delaney Hall, with conflicting stories from ICE and a delay in hospital transfer. This lack of accountability extends to the broader system, where information about detainee well-being or transfers is scarce and unreliable, making it difficult for families and advocates to track individuals.
Jean Wilson Brutus died a day after being imprisoned in December, with 'zero transparency' about what happened. ICE provided 'several different stories' to his family, and the official press release cited a heart condition, which the autopsy reportedly did not confirm. Detainees can 'disappear' in the system for days or weeks during transfers, making them untraceable.
5Community-Led Mutual Aid and Resistance
In response to the systemic failures and abuses, a robust community-led mutual aid network, 'Eyes on ICE New Jersey,' has formed outside Delaney Hall. This group provides essential support to families, including food, coffee, diapers, wipes, toys, and donated clothing to help visitors meet strict dress codes. Volunteers work in shifts, demonstrating sustained solidarity and creating a supportive environment for those affected by detentions, contrasting with the perceived inaction of elected officials.
The 'radical hospitality tent' offers food, coffee, snacks, diapers, wipes, and toys. A clothing station helps visitors comply with dress codes (no orange, white, black, navy blue). Volunteers work daily shifts, including Tuesdays/Thursdays (4-9 PM) and Saturdays/Sundays (7 AM-7 PM).
Bottom Line
ICE utilizes AI to monitor detainee phone calls, automatically cutting lines when 'keywords' related to prison conditions are detected, effectively censoring communication and preventing information leaks.
This practice suppresses critical information about human rights abuses, hinders legal defense, and increases the psychological isolation of detainees, making external advocacy and oversight significantly more challenging.
Develop secure, encrypted communication platforms specifically designed for detained individuals and their legal/family contacts, resistant to AI monitoring and censorship, to ensure transparency and uphold communication rights.
ICE agents are targeting and harassing the families of activists, not just undocumented immigrants, as a tactic of intimidation and retaliation for public advocacy.
This expands the scope of ICE's perceived overreach, creating a chilling effect on free speech and assembly, and transforming advocacy into a personal risk for entire families, including U.S. citizens.
Establish legal defense funds and rapid response networks specifically for activists and their families facing ICE retaliation, providing legal counsel, security assessments, and public awareness campaigns to expose and counter such tactics.
The 'disappearance' of detainees within the ICE system, where individuals are untraceable for days or weeks during transfers, is a systemic issue, sometimes even to ICE itself.
This administrative chaos creates immense distress for families, impedes legal processes (e.g., bond filings), and raises serious concerns about detainee safety and well-being, potentially masking abuses or deaths.
Advocate for and develop a mandatory, real-time, publicly accessible tracking system for all ICE detainees, ensuring immediate location data and transfer logs are available to legal representatives and approved family members.
Key Concepts
For-Profit Incarceration
The concept where private companies manage correctional facilities, often leading to cost-cutting measures that compromise detainee welfare and human rights in pursuit of financial gain, as exemplified by Geo Group's operations and profit margins.
Systemic Injustice
A framework where legal and institutional structures perpetuate unfair and harmful practices against specific groups, illustrated by the arbitrary detentions, high bonds, and targeted harassment within the ICE system, disproportionately affecting immigrant communities.
Lessons
- Support GoFundMe campaigns for detainees, such as Martin Sto's $50,000 bond, to help families meet unattainable financial demands set by immigration judges.
- Volunteer with local mutual aid groups like 'Eyes on ICE New Jersey' to provide direct support (food, clothes, diapers, legal assistance) to families affected by detentions.
- Contact your local and federal legislators to demand investigations into ICE abuses, push for the closure of for-profit detention centers, and advocate for humane immigration reforms.
Notable Moments
The drum circle and mutual aid tent outside Delaney Hall, marking a year of continuous protest and solidarity.
This highlights the sustained community resistance and the human-centered approach of activists in contrast to the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison, offering a symbol of hope and collective action.
Deborah Gomez recounting ICE agents breaking her attorney's car windows with a crowbar and making sexual assault threats.
This illustrates the extreme and illegal tactics used by ICE agents to intimidate and retaliate against activists, revealing a pattern of abuse of power that extends beyond detaining immigrants.
Gabriella describing her husband's 30-pound weight loss and delayed medical care inside Delaney Hall.
This personal testimony provides concrete evidence of the severe physical and medical neglect within the facility, directly linking the for-profit model to the deterioration of detainee health.
Quotes
"If the guard is not in a good mood, then they don't get medication. They don't go to the infirmary. They don't get good food. The food there is horrible. The food there, it's either uncooked or expired."
"This is Trump says a lot that he wants to make America great again, but that's not what this is about. It's just about getting more money from the lower class to make the upper class gain more power."
"When I come knocking at your house with a warrant, don't be surprised."
"They should put their DICK in my mouth. Very disgusting. Like this is how these federal agents, if if they're deeming them to be criminals and they're bad people, then what are these agents?"
"This is indefinite. Like people have no idea when they're getting out. Like when you're in jail or you've been convicted of a crime, you can count down your days. You know how you can reduce your sentence. But here there's just no way to know what's going to help get you out. And that really messes with your mind. And it is actually considered a form of torture."
"Every major religion says, welcome the foreigner. How did we get here? This is a question. This is a call to conscience for America. This is pathetic."
Q&A
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