ICE will reopen the largest immigration detention facility on the East Coast, which can house 1,000 beds

Delaney Hall, the biggest immigration detention facility on the East Coast, is scheduled to reopen in Newark, New Jersey, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Under the Trump administration, which has made immigration enforcement a top priority, the 1,000-bed facility will be the first to operate.

“As we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens from our communities, the location near an international airport streamlines logistics and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody,” said acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello.

Adjacent to the Essex County jail, GEO Group’s Delaney Hall served as a detention facility for immigrants from 2011 until 2017. According to the New Jersey Monitor, the private prison corporation announced the deal during an earnings call, with plans to start operations by the end of June.

For 15 years, ICE will pay GEO Group $60 million a year, for a total of $900 million. Trump’s mass deportation proposals would increase the company’s “scale of opportunity,” according to CEO David Donahue.

Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey passed a measure in 2021 that prohibited ICE from establishing facilities for detaining immigrants. In 2023, however, a federal judge declared a portion of the statute to be unlawful. In 2024, GEO Group filed a lawsuit, claiming the prohibition was unconstitutional under the supremacy clause.

At the moment, New Jersey runs a single, 270-bed immigration detention facility in Elizabeth.

Recent arrests by federal authorities in Georgia and Maryland highlight ICE’s ongoing emphasis on holding unauthorized immigrants.