Songs Of Freedom Give Hope To ICE Detainees At Essex County Jail – Newark, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — They came with songs of freedom, justice and love in their hearts.

More than 100 people gathered at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark last week for a rally to support ICE detainees housed at the county-run prison. Among them were the members of self-described “day laborer band” Jornaleros del Norte, who offered a touching serenade to the imprisoned immigrants, imploring them to keep their hopes up in a time of crisis.

“We stand together for those who cannot!” one sign declared.

“It was a powerful action,” said Jorge Torres of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, one of the groups that spearheaded the rally. “More than 800 detainees got to experience how music is melting walls.”

In particular, the band offered support for Dover High School alum and undocumented immigrant Jose Hernandez Velasquez, a 20-year-old Salvadoran who has lived in New Jersey since he was an infant.

Hernandez Velasquez currently awaits deportation due to a series of low-level offenses, including disorderly conduct and trespassing. He claims officers at the prison forced him to strip naked and beat him after a chaotic confrontation involving another inmate and a corrections officer in May, Gothamist/WNYC reported.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Hernandez Velasquez’s allegations.

While Hernandez Velasquez may be undocumented, he also comes from a “mixed-status immigrant family,” according to a coalition of advocacy groups including Wind of the Spirit, New Labor, Casa Freehold, Lazos, Unidad Latina en Acción NJ and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

For example, his parents have Temporary Protected Status , although their status is now being targeted by President Donald Trump’s administration as well, the groups said.

Supporters also decried the county’s ongoing contract to house almost a thousand federal detainees for ICE, which generates an estimated $50 million of revenue per year.

They pointed out the county-run prison has recently come under fire for having “unsanitary, inhumane and unsafe conditions,” as evidenced by a scathing inspection done at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security itself last year.

Administrators at the jail and county officials took immediate action after the inspection report emerged, tackling the alleged safety and health violations and revamping several jail policies. In addition, county administrators and the Board of Chosen Freeholders pledged to use some of the money from the ICE contract to pay for free lawyers for detainees.

But some advocates and family members of inmates say that much more needs to be done at the prison … including ending its contract with ICE.

“I was detained by ICE here for four months and it was the worst experience of my life,” said Dover resident Geovanny Soto, who served time at Essex County Correctional Facility.

“I witnessed injustices when I was there,” Soto said. “Thankfully, I am now a U.S. citizen, but this abuse against immigrants has to stop.”

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