Activists protest ICE contract – NorthJersey.com

About three dozen protesters braved the wind Saturday and gathered outside the Essex County jail in Newark to continue to press county officials to stop housing immigration detainees at the facility on Doremus Avenue.

The protestors chanted “shut it down,” and “immigrants are welcomed here,” in between speeches and singing that demanded that Essex County end its collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE and terminate its contract with the agency.  The contract allows those detained by ICE on immigration violations or those seeking asylum to be sent to the facility while they await a decision on their case. ICE pays Essex County more than $100 per day, per detainee it houses. 

“I’m not going to tell you that we can shut down this contract this year,” said Ellen Whitt, one of the organizers of the event. “These contracts involve a lot of money. More today than ever….It’s a lot of money at stake and they won’t give up this income stream lightly, but by exposing their collaboration with ICE and profits off of an immoral system, we can change the political equation.” 

Essex County holds hundreds of federal detainees on any given day, a number that fluctuates. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincezno could not be reached Saturday, but in the past he has defended the contract, saying it helps bring revenue and keep county taxes at a minimum. He has also said that the immigrant detainees held at the facility are treated well. 

Saturday’s protest was one in a series of demonstrations held outside the Essex County Correctional Facility and in other parts of the state, and country, in response to the Trump administration’s continued tough stance on illegal immigration and increased enforcement, which has led more people to be detained on immigration violations.

Across the country, county officials are facing backlash for cooperating with ICE, with some jails terminating their contracts with the agency after public outcry. 

 Earlier this year, Contra Costa County and Sacramento County in California canceled their contracts with ICE to hold immigration detainees, as did Alexandria, Virginia, and Springfield, Oregon. 

In New Jersey, immigration detainees are held at county jails in Essex, Bergen and Hudson counties. A private detention facility in Elizabeth also holds immigration detainees for ICE. 

Earlier this year, Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said he would initiate a “Path to Exit” from that county’s contract with ICE.  Freeholders recently renewed that contract to hold immigration detainees through 2020 despite objections from some members of the public, who urged officials to end the contract sooner. 

Some people who have objected to ending the ICE contracts have raised a concern that if the jails close, those detained on immigration violations would be sent to other facilities in other states and would be farther away from loved ones and legal representatives. 

But Whitt, who said she was among the activists who lobbied successfully years ago for Middlesex County to end its contract with ICE, said that is not the case. 

“Nobody is standing around saying, ‘I wish that place was still open,’ ” she said. “We know from experience that the more space that is open, the more people they pick up, that’s a fact.  When they have fewer and fewer beds, they are more likely to let people stay in their communities.” 

Essex County was among 10 counties across the nation that together accounted for more than a quarter of immigration arrests in an eight-month period ending in May, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearing House, or TRAC, a nonpartisan research center at Syracuse University. 

Jay Arena, who is challenging DiVincenzo for county executive in this year’s election, questioned how anyone can refer to Essex County or Newark as a safe place or “sanctuary,” for immigrants.  Arena is part of a grassroots organization and is running under the banner “Jobs and Equal Rights for All.” 

“We want to drive out Trump, but we have to dump all the Democrats too, in deep blue New Jersey, and deep blue Essex County, deep blue Newark, they are collaborating with ICE,” he said. 

Whitt said the public needs to be aware that separation of immigrant families does not only happen at the border but in each state when a father or mother is detained by immigration officers and sent to a detention facility away from their children. 

The demonstration was attended by representatives from several immigration advocacy groups including Movimiento Cosecha, Resist the Deportation Machine, and Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War.  

 

 

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