Hudson County is looking for other revenue so it can end contract to house ICE detainees – NorthJersey.com
One of three county jails in New Jersey that houses federal immigration detainees is finding ways to make up for expected revenue loss if they were to stop taking people from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the end of next year.
Hudson County is among a growing number of counties across the country, from California to Massachusetts, that have terminated or are in the process of ending housing contracts with ICE, which rents bed space from local and county jails. Reports of inadequate medical care and the separation of migrant children from parents have also sparked protests to pressure elected officials to end their ICE contracts.
“If Trump is reelected, I think it’s going to be very difficult for anyone” on the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders “to want to stay in the business of ICE, not knowing what a second Trump term will bring,’’ said Freeholder William O’Dea. “And if somehow a progressive Democrat got elected who says they may phase out of this or reform it, or who knows, then people might say it’s not a bad idea.”
Even though some counties have cut ties with ICE, others don’t find it as easy to do because of the financial loss.
“The revenue from an ICE contract is often a deciding factor” when counties decide whether to continue such contracts, said Christina Fialho, co-founder and executive director of Freedom for Immigrants, an organization that aims to abolish immigration detention. “However, we have been heartened by counties like Sacramento, California, that after years of contracting with ICE ended their contracts this past year. Despite the Sacramento County Sheriff advocating for the ICE contract based on a profit motive, the Board of Supervisors took a moral stance.”
Hudson County received more than $27 million to house ICE detainees in 2018. Essex County, where activists continue to call for an end to the ICE contract, houses the most immigration detainees in the state, and billed nearly $35 million to ICE in 2018, according to invoices and information provided by the counties.
Last year, Bergen County received more than $16.5 million, according to invoices.
In Democratic-controlled Hudson county, immigration advocates renewed calls for the jail to end its contract with ICE after the death of Carlos Bonilla, an ICE detainee who had been held in the Hudson jail and died in custody in 2017. Bonilla’s death was followed by the death of five others being held at the facility within a nine-month period.
Activists accused the county government of being complicit with the Trump administration and profiting from the president’s stricter immigration policies.
Despite the backlash, in December 2018 Hudson County freeholders extended the ICE housing contract for two more years. At the time, Freeholder Chairman Anthony Vainieri said that that the vote was a “commitment to phase out” the contract before they needed to renew again. Months earlier, Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise announced that the county would initiate a “path to exit” from its ICE contract.
The Hudson County jail, like many across the state, has seen a drop in the number of inmates due to the state’s reformed bail system, which moved New Jersey away from cash bail. The change and the likelihood of ending the ICE contract has led county and jail officials to look for other ways to bring in revenue.
To fill beds at the jail, Hudson County freeholders approved a contract with Mercer County in the fall that calls for the jail to begin receiving inmates from that county in January. Mercer County will pay Hudson $11.2 million per year for up to 300 inmates, plus a flat rate of $102 per inmate per day for any additional inmates above 300 in a calendar year.
“I think a lot of freeholders will prefer that we get out” of the ICE contract, O’Dea said, “and the Mercer contract puts us in an easier position from the pure operational costs of the facilit. By the spring, we will have a better assessment of how that is going, and what the numbers are.”
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However, the agreement between the two counties has been challenged in court by the Mercer County Correctional Officers Union. This week, a judge handed down a stay preventing the contract from taking effect in January, O’Dea said.
O’Dea said the Hudson County jail has also taken more detainees from the U.S. Marshal’s Office in recent months, totaling more than 100 per day.
“It’s made us less reliant on ICE from an operational perspective,’’ he said.
In 2014, the Hudson County jail housed around 450 ICE detainees a day, and the number rose to roughly 800 just four years later. Late last month, the number was at 300.
Most of the jail’s ICE detainees come from the federal agency’s New York district office, but about a dozen come from the Newark district office.
James Kennelly, a spokesman for the county executive, did not return a call for comment, but O’Dea said Hudson County officials are also discussing whether to take New Jersey inmates who are in need of substance abuse treatment and who are a year away from completing their sentences.
“We would help with treatment and job training,’’ he said. “They are having ongoing discussions with the state to try and get that program, and that could get 150 to 200 inmates from the state.”
Monsy Alvarado is the immigration reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about one of the hottest issues in our state and country, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: alvarado@northjersey.com Twitter: @monsyalvarado
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