Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-NJ-11)

“Until the abuses end and they abolish ICE, I’m going to continue to show up here and do my job,” said McIver. “In an act of real bravery and obvious desperation, detainees wrote a letter about the conditions that they are facing here at Delaney Hall. Not enough food, no medical care, and conditions they call torture—conditions any of us would recognize as torture. After coming out of the facility, I can tell you that everything in the letter is 100% correct. ICE and DHS will lie and lie because the only thing that they care about is getting caught—which is why we do these unannounced oversight visits.”

“What we said over a year ago at Delaney Hall was that no one is safe in Trump’s America,” said Menendez. “We see that with every single visit when we see pastors, mothers, and disabled individuals being held here instead of the criminals the Trump Administration claimed it was targeting. All while ICE continues to try to break these people and steal their humanity. We won’t let them do this in the dark, and we will continue to shine light onto what is going on behind closed doors until we shut this facility down.”

“I just visited Delaney Hall, and my worst fears are confirmed,” said Mejia. “A year ago, I was an advocate, standing outside watching Mayor Ras Baraka get arrested and three Members of Congress get manhandled. And today, I visited Delaney Hall with two of my congressional colleagues who were there that day, and the injustice and suffering are visible in plain sight. I may never forget the faces of those detainees begging for help. These people deserve the fullness of our Constitution and laws. My father used to say it’s only by the grace of God that we walk. Today, I saw the path some of these immigrant detainees walk, and we must do better. These immigrants deserve humanity, and we must fight for justice. It’s time to rein in on ICE.”

Rep. LaMonica McIver, Rep. Analilia Mejia, Rep. Rob Menendez

“Every single visit I make to Delaney Hall and Elizabeth Detention Center is more heartbreaking than the last, and the idea of recreating the dehumanizing and cruel treatment that our neighbors face there on an even larger scale in Roxbury is completely wrong,” said Congressman Menendez. “I am leading my Democratic colleagues in calling on Secretary Mullin to heed the calls of our delegation and local communities, including Roxbury’s Republican leaders, and abandon DHS’s immigration detention warehouse plans in New Jersey.”

“The people of New Jersey, local officials, and Members of Congress have made our position clear. Moving forward with the Roxbury facility despite these clear adverse consequences would represent an unacceptable failure of leadership and a continuation of policies that have already caused lasting harm in our districts. Accordingly, we urge you to permanently abandon all plans to convert the Roxbury warehouse into an ICE facility and halt any further efforts to expand immigration detention in New Jersey. We also request a full accounting of all site selection, acquisition, and planning activities related to detention facilities in New Jersey,” the delegation concluded.

Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Herb Conaway, Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. LaMonica McIver, Rep. Analilia Mejia, Rep. Rob Menendez, Rep. Donald Norcross, Rep. Frank Pallone, Rep. Nellie Pou, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman