DHS / GEO Use Illegal Mass Transfers and Floor Violence Against Captives Who Are Striking Against Deadly Camp Conditions
URGENT – PLEASE READ AND SHARE.
CALL ON MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO DEMAND: FREE ALL DETAINEES! SHUT DOWN DELANEY HALL (AND OTHER ICE CONCENTRATION CAMPS) 202-224-3121
For Immediate Release: June 10, 2026
Contact: Henry Craver, hcraver@afsc.org
Palmira Figueroa, pfigueroa@ndlon.org
DHS AND GEO GROUP ATTEMPT TO END COLLECTIVE ORGANIZING & SILENCE STRIKERS AT DELANEY HALL WITH MASS TRANSFERS
Women Issue New Demands Amid Increasing Repression
Newark, New Jersey— Over the last 19 days, hundreds of men and women detained at Delaney Hall have collectively organized strikes to demand freedom from an abusive, profit-run, prison system. Today, despite transfers, threats, excessive force, and other numerous tactics to break the spirit of the strikers, more demands (focusing on the experience of women detained) are taking form.
This morning, ICE reportedly removed around 90 people from their units and are being processed for transfer to different prisons or units as a way to disband connections.
This is in addition to the suspected 300 people who were transferred out of Delaney Hall over the weekend. These transfers occurred while Geo Group and ICE are systematically denying families visitation and cutting communications between them and their loved ones.
Advocates are demanding Geo Group immediately restore full visitation and communications rights.
Dozens of women continue the relay of the labor and hunger strike saying, “We are mothers, daughters, sisters. We are people and we demand justice.”
The strikers assert the following additional demands:
● Release all the women, with priority given to women under the age of 21, women with medical conditions, and mothers.
● Initiate and carry to completion independent investigations of all allegations of abuse. Women report that they have made multiple complaints of sexual abuse against a female officer. ● Immediately restore all visitation privileges so that mothers, daughters, and family members can maintain meaningful contact with their loved ones.
● Expand access to legal representation and support. Many women detained at Delaney Hall face complex immigration proceedings without attorneys or adequate legal assistance. Continued pro bono legal representation is needed to ensure individuals have meaningful access to due process.
● GEO must contract cleaning services, so that people are not threatened to do labor for the benefit of a multibillion dollar corporation.
● GEO must immediately hire new qualified medical staff including nurses and doctors available 24/7 to respond to emergencies. Nurses mistreat people and give people incorrect medications, medical attention is routinely denied.
● GEO must immediately replace its current food supplier to meet basic nutritional and health standards. This includes providing healthy high quality meals that accommodate medical, religious, and dietary needs.
● GEO must repair the plumbing and HVAC in particular the second bathroom in the women’s unit and all bathrooms of the facility. In addition to ventilation, air conditioning/circulation, water temperature controls, and drinking water systems
● GEO must Provide safe drinking water. If safe drinking water cannot be guaranteed through faucets and water fountains, then bottled water should be brought into the units and made available through the commissary.
● GEO is responsible for providing staff training, accountability systems and oversight, and security personnel changes to ensure dignified treatment of detained people
On the day the strike started on Friday, May 22, over 52 women signed a letter detailing who exactly ICE is detaining and what they are experiencing. The full letter can be read here: lahuelga.com/justice
Since the strikes began, with the striker’s determination and collective action, advocates have pointed to several significant victories including: the release of a high school student, the release of all pregnant women, the release of several people with medical conditions, a moderate investment in pro bono legal services (DDDI) of $12 million dollars, lawsuits and inspections, national and international news coverage, and more.
This effort is not unique to New Jersey as resistance against the civil and human rights abuse inside ICE prisons spreads across the country, as does the support outside the prison walls.
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Eyes on ICE NJ
American Friends Service Committee New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program
Casa Freehold
DIRE – Deportation and Immigration Response Equipo
El Pueblo Unido of Atlantic City
Movimiento Cosecha New Jersey New Labor
Pax Christi NJ
Resistencia en Acción New Jersey Semilla Roja
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)
Re-send to Congress by Re-post on Blue Sky:
Recent Comms of Striking Captives and in Support:
