Yvette Clarke

Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian national, died at Delaney Hall on Dec. 12 and was the first reported death at the facility since its opening in May.

Congress members are provided their assessment of what they saw during their inspection as part of their congressional oversight duties

New Jersey Congress members Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver, and New York Congresswoman Yvette Clarke inspected the Newark detention center, Delaney Hall, on Dec. 23, nearly two weeks after a Haitian man died at the facility.

The three legislators, all Democrats, arrived at Delaney Hall at 9 a.m. and were scheduled to hold a press conference at approximately 11 a.m., following the conclusion of their visit, according to Michael Zhadanovsky, a senior advisor to Rep. Menendez. Instead, they spend over three and a half hours in the facility.

Menendez said during the press conference that the detainees they met with were sick and coughing, and the food was "hideous."

"These are human beings, people who were taken out of our community that are being held in there," Menendez said.

The Congress members inspected the facility as part of their congressional oversight duties. Menendez and McIver are familiar faces at Delaney Hall from past visits, most famously one on May 9 with retiring New Jersey Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, when Baraka was arrested and McIver was charged after a confrontation with federal law enforcement.

The charges were dropped against Baraka, and he filed a lawsuit against former U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba for false arrest, which is still pending as of last week. McIver's case is pending in federal court.

McIver said it was traumatic to return to Delaney Hall, but it was her duty to overcome her trauma to see what was happening inside the facility to try to help the detainees, with some in there for months. She called for Delaney Hall to be shut permanently for the horrible conditions, as she recalled what one detainee told her.

"When we left out of there, a detainee told us, 'This is not the America we dreamed of, '" McIver said. "It is not right. We should do better."

Clarke said the reason that detention centers like Delaney Hall exist is that they are profitable for prison companies like the GEO Group, which owns the facility. She also said that "no human being is deserving of the conditions" in the facility.

All three also expressed their condolences to the family of Jean Wilson Brutus and called for a transparent investigation of his death.

A relative of Jean Wilson Brutus, the 41-year-old Haitian national detained at the facility who died there on Dec. 12 and was the first reported death at the facility since its opening, was expected to speak at the press conference, but had to leave before the press conference. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cited “suspected natural causes” for Brutus' death, but family members, in an interview with NorthJersey.com, are calling for an investigation into his death.

"They are seeking transparency, accountability, and the truth," said attorney Joseph M. Champagne, Jr., who is representing the family.

His death was the first reported at the facility since its opening. He was one of four immigrants who died while in detention by ICE between Dec. 12 and 15, according to Reuters. Thirty people have died in ICE detention this year, it reported.

The inspection comes a day after a group of immigrant advocates and Lutheran pastors held a prayer vigil outside its walls to draw attention to conditions inside and out of the facility, which opened in May.

The 1,196-bed Delaney Hall is the first immigrant detention center to open during the second term of President Donald Trump, during which the president has vowed to deport at least 11 million undocumented immigrants. In February, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency awarded GEO Group a contract to hold migrants facing deportation at Delaney Hall.

Since opening for business, the facility has had a daily population of 855 people as of Nov. 28, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. But those inside have to deal with substandard conditions, including inedible food and arbitrary visiting hours.

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

Email: [email protected]

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