New Jersey Governor Sherrill Says ICE Denied Her Entry to Delaney Hall Detention Facility

On Memorial Day 2026, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill drove to Newark's industrial waterfront to visit Delaney Hall, a 1,196-bed immigration detention center operated by the GEO Group under a $1 billion, 15-year contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement [1]. She was turned away at the door.

"My request for access to Delaney Hall was formally denied this morning, raising serious questions about what they are trying to hide from public view," Sherrill said in a statement [2]. The denial came as roughly 300 detainees inside the facility had launched a hunger and labor strike over allegations of spoiled food, denied medical care, and unsanitary conditions [3] — and as ICE agents in riot gear were pepper-spraying protesters, including U.S. Senator Andy Kim, outside the facility gates [4].

The confrontation at Delaney Hall is not an isolated incident. It is the sharpest expression yet of a contest between the federal government and state authorities over who gets to look inside America's expanding network of immigration detention facilities — and what happens when no one does.

The Facility: From Halfway House to the East Coast's Largest Detention Center

Delaney Hall sits in an industrial corridor of Newark, flanked by a natural gas plant, a sewage treatment facility, and a rendering plant [5]. The building previously held immigrant detainees from 2011 to 2017, then served as a drug rehabilitation center and halfway house until 2023, when it was vacated [5].

In February 2025, ICE announced a 15-year contract with the GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison operator, to reopen Delaney Hall as an immigration detention center with an authorized capacity of 1,196 — making it the largest facility of its kind on the East Coast [5][6]. As of late May 2026, federal data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University showed a daily population of approximately 908 detainees [3].

The reopening was contested from the start. The city of Newark filed suit in April 2025, alleging GEO Group made modifications to prepare the facility for detention use without obtaining required local permits [7]. Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested during a confrontation at the facility in May 2025, though charges were later dropped [5].

Inside Delaney Hall: Competing Accounts

What is actually happening inside the facility depends on whom you ask.

Detainees and their advocates describe conditions that are grim. Lawyers representing detainees told reporters that food was being served spoiled or with worms, that people with chronic conditions could not access medical care, and that water quality was poor [3][8]. Senator Kim, who was granted access as part of his congressional oversight authority, said he spoke with more than 100 detainees during his visit. He described meeting a pregnant woman who was not receiving adequate obstetric care and learned of another detainee who had reportedly suffered a miscarriage inside the facility [8][9].

"This place needs to shut down. It is not reflective of our constitution, of our laws, of how people, anybody in this country, should be treated," Kim said after his visit [8].

Representatives Rob Menendez and Frank Pallone, who also visited, reported unsanitary bathroom facilities, poor medical care, and abuse by guards [6].

The Department of Homeland Security and GEO Group have consistently disputed these characterizations. DHS denied that there was a coordinated hunger strike [3] and has maintained that food and healthcare at the facility meet required standards. Border czar Tom Homan visited and reportedly ate the same meal served to detainees, according to NBC News [5]. A DHS spokesperson said the facility operates in compliance with ICE detention standards [1].

In December 2025, 41-year-old Jean Wilson Brutus died while in custody at Delaney Hall. ICE reported that Brutus suffered a "medical emergency" roughly one day after arriving at the facility and was transported to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead [10]. Representative LaMonica McIver called for a full accounting of the circumstances [10].

Why Was the Governor Denied Entry?

The legal distinction ICE drew was between federal congressional oversight and state executive authority. A DHS spokesperson confirmed that Senator Kim was permitted inside the facility to "conduct his congressional oversight responsibilities" [1]. Governor Sherrill, despite being the chief executive of the state in which the facility operates, was told she had no equivalent right.

ICE did not cite a specific federal statute authorizing the denial. Rather, the agency's position rests on the broader principle that immigration detention is a core federal function, and that facilities operated under federal contract are subject to federal — not state — jurisdiction [11]. GEO Group echoed this argument in court filings, contending that "federal authority over immigration detention limits local oversight" [7].

Legal scholars are divided on whether this position holds up. Federal supremacy over immigration law is well established. But New Jersey has its own statutory framework: state law authorizes the Department of Health commissioner to "enter and inspect public and private detention centers" and to have "full access" to any premises where there is reason to believe a violation may be occurring [7][12]. The question of whether federal preemption nullifies that state inspection power in the context of a privately operated facility on state soil has not been definitively resolved by the courts.

The Broader Pattern: Access Denied

Delaney Hall is part of a much larger pattern. Since January 2025, ICE has repeatedly denied or restricted access to detention facilities for elected officials at multiple levels of government [13].

Senator Dick Durbin reported being denied access to the Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois four times, calling the denials unconstitutional [14]. ICE imposed a new policy requiring a seven-day waiting period for congressional visits and barring entry to field offices — a policy that a federal court temporarily blocked in December 2025, ruling it violated federal law guaranteeing congressional oversight [13][15].

But the court order did not end the standoff. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem secretly reinstated the prior-notice requirement through a previously undisclosed memorandum, which came to light only after multiple members of Congress were denied entry to an ICE facility in Minnesota despite presenting the court order [15]. A second court ruling was required to restore access [15].

The denials have not been limited to Democrats. The pattern of restricting access has affected lawmakers across party lines, though the most prominent public confrontations have involved Democratic officials in states that have clashed with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement [13].

Source: ICE ERO Annual Reports / TRAC

Data as of May 1, 2026CSV

The context for these access battles is a rapid expansion of ICE detention. The average daily detained population has grown from roughly 22,000 in FY2021 to an estimated 55,892 in FY2026 — surpassing the previous peak of approximately 50,000 in FY2019 [16]. That growth has been accompanied by a proliferation of new or reopened facilities like Delaney Hall, many operated by private contractors.

New Jersey Fights Back in Court

Governor Sherrill's response to the access denial was not limited to public statements. On June 2, 2026, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed suit against GEO Group on behalf of the state Department of Health [12][7].

The lawsuit's origins trace to May 28, when state health inspectors were permitted inside Delaney Hall for a limited visit. They were then blocked from inspecting the medical unit, sleeping quarters, and bathing facilities — the areas most directly relevant to the health and safety complaints [12]. ICE subsequently refused the state's request to complete the inspection [7].

The state's suit seeks a court order compelling GEO Group to allow inspectors full access to all areas of the facility [12]. Separately, the city of Newark announced it would expand its existing litigation against GEO Group to seek the facility's closure if full inspection access was not granted [7][17].

New York Attorney General Letitia James also announced legal action related to the facility, joining a growing coalition of state and local officials challenging federal detention operations [17].

The Legal Road Ahead

If New Jersey's lawsuit proceeds to a ruling, it could set a significant precedent on the intersection of federal immigration authority and state health and safety oversight.

The state's strongest argument is straightforward: New Jersey law grants health inspectors access to detention centers, and GEO Group is a private company operating on state soil. The facility is not a federal building owned by the U.S. government — it is a privately owned property operating under a federal contract [5][12].

GEO Group and the federal government will likely argue that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution preempts state inspection authority when it conflicts with federal immigration operations. Courts have generally held that state and local governments cannot "unduly interfere" with core federal functions, and immigration detention has been treated as such a function [11].

The timeline for resolution is uncertain. Emergency motions for immediate access could be heard within days or weeks. A full adjudication of whether federal preemption bars state health inspections of privately operated detention facilities could take months — or longer if appealed.

The congressional access cases offer a partial roadmap. Federal courts have twice now ordered the administration to stop blocking congressional oversight visits, only to see the administration find new mechanisms to reimpose restrictions [15]. Whether state officials will face the same cycle of litigation, court orders, and executive workarounds remains to be seen.

Oversight in Crisis

The DHS Office of Inspector General has acknowledged that its inspection capacity has not kept pace with the expansion of detention. The office recently received a $20 million infusion and plans to increase its annual unannounced inspections from four to six per year to as many as 40 to 60 [18]. Whether that capacity will materialize — and whether Delaney Hall will be among the facilities inspected — is an open question.

Previous OIG inspections of ICE facilities in the Northeast have found serious deficiencies. An unannounced visit to the nearby Essex County Correctional Facility documented unreported security incidents, food safety violations, ceiling leaks, unsanitary shower stalls, and problems with bedding and outdoor recreation areas [18].

The Government Accountability Office published a report in 2025 finding that DHS had not defined clear goals or measures to assess its facility inspection programs [18], raising questions about whether the oversight infrastructure is adequate for a detention system that is larger than at any point in American history.

What Comes Next

The Delaney Hall standoff has become a focal point for a set of questions that extend well beyond Newark.

Can a state inspect a private facility operating under a federal contract within its borders? Can the federal government categorically exclude a governor from a detention center in her own state? And when congressional access is blocked, court orders are circumvented, and health inspectors are turned away, who is left to verify the conditions under which thousands of people are held?

Senator Kim, after being caught in pepper spray outside the facility, framed the stakes bluntly: "I don't know what's next for Delaney Hall, and that terrifies me" [4][19].

For now, the answers will be determined not by policy debate but by litigation — in state court, in federal court, and in an ongoing contest between branches and levels of government over who has the authority and the obligation to look inside.