Will ICE open other detention facilities in New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to add other centers that would house immigration detainees in New York and New Jersey as their population in the area and nationwide has declined, due in part to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

ICE is soliciting information for detention sites, which would house up to 900 detainees, within a 60-mile radius of its New York City field office in New York or New Jersey, according to documents posted on a federal contracting site this month.

The agency is also requesting information for another site within 60 miles of its Newark office in the Garden State or Pennsylvania. The detention facilities, according to the “request for information” documents, must be “capable of providing detention, medical, and armed transport services, including the physical structures, equipment, personnel, and vehicles.”

The intent of the request for information, the posting says, is to obtain market information, and it's not a request for proposal, which is a document that solicits proposals often through a bidding process.

“This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment to an RFP in the future,’’ the posting states. “Responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the government to form a binding contract.”

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The document says the detention facilities must also be “properly staffed” to maintain a safe and secure environment, adding that an outdoor detainee recreation area is strongly desired.

Emilio Dabul, a spokesman for ICE in Newark, said he had no comment regarding the RFIs.

The requests for information worried some immigrant advocates in New Jersey who have been lobbying for years for an end to the existing agreements that allow for federal immigration detainees to be housed at a private facility in Elizabeth, and at jails in Bergen, Hudson and Essex counties in New Jersey, and Orange County, New York.  

"This means that more enforcement activity will be happening in New York and New Jersey,'' said Chia Chia Wang, organizing and advocacy director for American Friends Service Committee in Newark. "More people will be detained, and when I think more carefully, it doesn't seem like a surprise to me, because ICE is trying to wind down some contracts with county governments they don't work well with." 

Immigration advocates have been successful in getting Hudson County officials to take steps to end their contracts with ICE. Advocates also successfully pushed for Essex County to start a Civilian Task Force that is charged with overseeing the immigration detention facility at the jail in Newark. 

And in July, after advocates wrote letters and held demonstrations outside the privately run detention center in Elizabeth, the owners of the property, Elberon Development Group, announced that they would terminate the lease with CoreCivic, which runs the facility and contracts with ICE to house detainees.  

Representatives for Elberon Development Group did not immediately answer emails on Monday asking for information on when the contract would end.

But in an email sent in July, Elberon said it had "listened," "looked" and "acted," and would move to terminate the contract.

"While we do not have any role in the operations and procedures of our tenants, we do understand the concerns of those who have written and called us,'' the email read. "We took some time to really listen, to do our own research and to reflect on who we are as a family and as a long-standing business in the community."  

In Hudson County, the Freeholder Board must vote in the next few months on whether it will continue its contract with ICE past December 2020.

In 2018, the freeholders extended the ICE housing contract. At the time, Freeholder Chairman Anthony Vainieri said 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 by 2020.

Hudson County Freeholder William O'Dea said there has been very little discussion about ending the contract, but that there are only 50 to 60 detainees being held there currently. In 2018, the jail housed around 800 ICE detainees on some days. 

"The county has lost its argument that it generates revenue to help operate the facility,'' O'Dea said. 

Vainieri said Monday that DeGise would have to come up with a plan that would then be up for a vote. He said the jail has not received any ICE detainees since March, soon after the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

James Kennelly, a spokesman for the county executive, did not immediately respond to an email for comment Monday. 

The number of ICE detainees held in New Jersey facilities has declined since the start of the pandemic, mirroring a nationwide trend. The average U.S. immigrant detainee population last year was 50,000, but it has dropped to under 20,000, according to ICE.

Besides the 60 or so being held in Hudson, Essex had 216 detainees and the Bergen County Jail had 217 from both New Jersey and New York ICE offices. Bergen County started to take New Jersey detainees within the last month, said Keisha McLean, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Sheriff's Office. The numbers have increased since April but are not as high as in 2019, when Bergen had near 400 ICE detainees at the jail. 

Beds for men and women detainees

The ideal facility, according to the request for information for the New York field office, would provide 900 low-, medium‐low-, medium‐high- and high‐security beds for 850 male and 50 female immigration detainees.

For the Newark field office, where the detention sites could be in either New Jersey or Pennsylvania, the facilities would provide 900 medium- and maximum‐security beds for 850 male and 50 female detainees. 

Existing facilities, newly constructed facilities or a combination of the two would be considered, according to the document. Facilities must provide housing, food, maintenance, laundry, utilities, and dental, medical and mental health care. The document states that dedicated ICE facilities are preferred, but facilities shared with other detained populations would be considered as long as the "appropriate separation of ICE detainees is possible."

The documents state that ICE may release a request for proposals in the “near future.” 

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