Washington, DC — This week, the Trump administration’s cruel, multi-layered immigration detention expansion plan moved full steam ahead with the news of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention contract approvals in Ohio, New Jersey, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. This comes the same week the administration launched a concerted effort to target unaccompanied children, and a week after the tragic death of Maksym Chernayak, 44, who died in ICE custody on February 20 in Florida. There are already over 41,000 people locked up in ICE custody – and Trump’s cruel detention expansion plan will only exacerbate a system that is rife with abuse, undoubtedly leading to more tragedies while tearing apart families and costing taxpayers greatly.
The latest on immigration detention:
- Today in New Jersey, the GEO Group and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Delaney Hall, a privately owned jail contracted by ICE between 2011 and 2017 and the subject of recent lawsuits, will reopen in Newark with the capacity to detain up to 1,000 people—more than quadrupling detention capacity in the state. Delaney Hall is the first detention center to open under this presidency, despite sustained community organizing against the facility, the state’s federal representatives' ongoing objection, and New Jersey state law that prohibits state and local entities and private companies from entering into agreements with ICE for immigration detention.
- In Ohio, three contracts with ICE will move forward. In Stryker, the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio board approved a contract that will allow ICE to use up to 96 beds at the regional jail to detain people in ICE custody despite county objections. In Hamilton, the Butler County Jail reached an agreement with ICE for up to 300 people at any given time starting in early March. In Youngstown, CoreCivic announced a new contract to expand detention capacity at Northeast Ohio Correctional Center.
- Additional CoreCivic contracts: CoreCivic also announced contracts to expand detention capacity at Nevada Southern Detention Center, Cimarron Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, and Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi, which, along with the expansion at Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, would add capacity to detain 784 people.
- Deaths in detention. This week, ICE reported the death of Maksym Chernayak, 44, who died in ICE custody on February 20 after being detained at the Krome Service and Processing Center in Florida. Chernakyak’s tragic passing marks the third reported death in ICE custody since Donald Trump assumed the presidency. Serawit Gezahegn Dejene, 45, died on January 29 in ICE custody after being detained at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, and Genry Ruiz Guillen, 29, died on January 23 after being detained at the Krome Service Processing Center. Three deaths in ICE custody in just over a month of Trump’s presidency marks the most deaths to occur in this fiscal year time period since 2020.
- Abuse and suicidal ideation at Guantánamo Bay. This week three people detained at Guantánamo bravely shared their stories with the Washington Post, speaking out against the horrific conditions people faced, including prolonged isolation, invasive strip searches, and little to no access to daylight. Some of the people interviewed expressed suicidal ideation, with one reported attempt. The use of Guantánamo Bay for ICE detention fits within a troubling and deepening collaboration with the Department of Defense to use military assets and bases for ICE custody. Trump is reportedly developing a “deportation hub” at Fort Bliss in Texas with the plan to expand the use of military bases into a national network for detention and deportation.
Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities for ICE custody. BOP has confirmed that it is detaining people in ICE custody without providing the critical details of where – leaving families in the dark about their loved one’s whereabouts and cutting people off from support networks. Especially troubling is the administration’s consideration of reopening the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, which shut down last year after widespread abuse, including by officers and the former warden who were either charged or convicted of sexual abuse.
Marcela Hernandez, Organizing and Membership Director at Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:
“The Trump administration’s cruel, multi-layered detention expansion plan puts lives in jeopardy – full stop. It is already exacerbating a system that is rife with abuse, and will undoubtedly lead to more tragedies while tearing apart families and costing taxpayers greatly. Trump is dangerously extending ICE’s reach to agencies across the federal government, including to the Department of Defense (DOD), the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), local county jails, and private prison facilities. This is an intentional strategy to obscure transparency, limit oversight of ICE, and normalize the inhumane and unnecessary detention of tens of thousands of people, putting many lives at risk.
Trump’s desire to increase the number of people locked up in detention is in deep contrast with the demands of local communities where immigrants are welcomed and valued, like in New Jersey. The reopening of Delaney Hall flies in the face of New Jerseyans’ sustained local organizing, which passed state legislation to phase out the use of immigration detention. It is clear that Trump will use every opportunity to demonize migrants while also undermining what communities want and need. This moment demands a national outcry — our elected officials cannot remain silent on Trump’s excessive cruelty. Rather, they must vocally oppose this mass detention and deportation agenda by denying Trump the resources he needs to carry out his plans, including by cutting funds to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.