{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://menendez.house.gov/media/press-releases/menendez-mciver-and-clarke-conduct-oversight-visit-at-delaney-hall", "Menendez, McIver, and Clarke Conduct Oversight Visit at Delaney Hall", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "NJ", "Robert Menendez", "M001226", "menendez.house.gov", "menendez", "https://menendez.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "NEWARK, NJ \u2013Today, Congressman Rob Menendez conducted an oversight visit at Delaney Hall, an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention facility in Newark operated by GEO Group. He was joined by Reps. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY-09) for the visit.\n\n\u201cWhat we saw inside Delaney Hall is the betrayal of the American Dream,\u201d said Congressman Menendez. \u201cThese are people who believe in the promise of this country and are being ripped from our communities and held there on the American taxpayer\u2019s dime. All while the GEO Group is making an enormous profit and providing substandard care. We will not let this stand and we will continue to work to hold this Administration and those who benefit from tearing communities apart accountable.\"\n\n\u201cI have a responsibility to serve the people and protect the people of the 10th Congressional District, and that is why I had to put aside my experience here and come back to represent them\u2013to see what is happening inside of Delaney Hall. These are the things we\u2019re hearing: people who have not had a court date in months, people who are waiting on loved ones who cannot visit them, and people who are not getting proper medical care. It is awful, and this detention center needs to be shut down. That's why we're here. We're going to continue to show up, continue to have oversight, and continue to do our jobs,\u201d said Congresswoman McIver. \u201cWhen we left, a detainee told us this is not the America that we dreamed of. They thought they would be able to come here and have a better life.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo human being deserves to suffer the conditions we witnessed behind the walls of Delaney Hall, today. What our tour made overwhelmingly clear is that Jean Wilson Brutus\u2019 death is a symptom of a larger culture of inhumanity that is inherent to for-profit detention centers like Delaney Hall. Nearly a thousand of our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, and our loved ones are confined to this facility indefinitely, where they are treated every day as though they are less than human. Across the nation, many thousands more are facing the exact same circumstances,\u201d said Congresswoman Clarke. \u201cBeing undocumented should not be a life sentence, and under no circumstance should it be a death sentence. Tragically, every passing week under this administration\u2019s control creates more victims like Jean Wilson Brutus. That sin will stain America for all time, and all those who are responsible for it must and will be held accountable.\u201d\n\nLast week, Congressman Menendez learned of the death of a man who had been detained at Delaney Hall. This followed numerous reports of substandard conditions at the facility and a tripling of Delaney Hall\u2019s population in less than a year of operation. In June, Congressman Menendez and Senator Andy Kim met with ICE officials at Delaney Hall after several detained individuals escaped amidst widespread complaints of overcrowding, poor quality food, and other issues that continue to be reported on a regular basis. In May, Menendez, McIver, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) conducted a legally protected inspection of Delaney Hall. The visit, which should have been a routine oversight visit, led to the Trump administration bringing charges against McIver. McIver now faces up to 17 years in prison for doing her oversight work.\n\nCongressman Rob Menendez has been a leader in the House of Representatives on oversight of immigrant detention centers. He has worked to ban private immigrant detention centers and led his colleagues in fighting the Trump Administration\u2019s illegal restrictions on oversight of these facilities. Earlier this year, in response to reports that the Trump Administration was planning to?expand immigration detention in New Jersey, Menendez led bicameral members of the New Jersey congressional delegation in opposing this expansion and demanding transparency. Since being sworn into to Congress in 2023, he has repeatedly called for the closure of all immigrant detention centers in New Jersey and has conducted several unannounced visits of Delaney Hall and the Elizabeth Detention Center. He has long advocated for the humane and dignified treatment of individuals in detention.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://menendez.house.gov/media/press-releases/menendez-mciver-and-clarke-conduct-oversight-visit-at-delaney-hall"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.350888215005398, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}