New Jersey Sues GEO Group Over Delaney Hall. They Won’t Let Health Inspectors In.
- $1 billion 15-year ICE contract GEO Group signed for Delaney Hall, April 2, 2025 — GEO Group SEC 8-K
- 1,000 beds; GEO Group billed $60M+ per year at full occupancy — facility opened May 2025 — GEO Group investor release
- 0 dollars sought in the AG lawsuit — the state wants only full inspection access, not damages — NJ AG complaint, Essex County Superior Court, June 2, 2026
- June 2, 2026 NJ AG Jennifer Davenport (D) filed the suit after state health inspectors were barred from the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathrooms — NJ Office of Attorney General
On June 2, 2026, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport (D) filed a civil lawsuit in Essex County Superior Court against The GEO Group, Inc. — the publicly traded private-prison company operating the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark — seeking a court order to force full health inspection access that GEO Group has been blocking.
The lawsuit does not seek money. It seeks a single injunction: let state public health inspectors into every part of the building — the medical unit, sleeping areas, shower and bathroom facilities, and ventilation systems — that GEO Group refused to open on May 27–28, 2026, when inspectors visited. GEO showed them the cafeteria for about 90 minutes and turned them away.
The facility has been at the center of a weeks-long flashpoint. Hundreds of detainees began a hunger-and-labor strike on May 22; protests surrounded the building on May 24–25; Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) was pepper-sprayed while attempting to de-escalate; Newark declared a 9pm curfew; and New Jersey State Police took over security. The AG lawsuit is the legal escalation of what has been a rolling crisis since Delaney Hall reopened as an ICE facility in May 2025.
Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed ICE detention facility operated by The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO), a Boca Raton, Florida corporation with $2.63 billion in 2025 revenues. GEO signed a 15-year, approximately $1 billion fixed-price services contract with ICE on April 2, 2025 — the largest single-facility contract in the company’s history, generating more than $60 million in annualized revenue at full occupancy.
The facility had previously operated as an ICE detention center from 2000 to 2017, when its contract was not renewed. GEO repurposed the building for drug rehabilitation through 2023, when it went dormant. Trump’s ICE brought it back online as part of a broader 2025 contract push — GEO Group booked approximately $520 million in new annualized ICE revenues across four reactivated or new facilities in 2025 alone, which the company described as “the largest amount of new business we have won in a single year in our company’s history.”
GEO’s contract covers security, food service, maintenance, recreation, medical care, and legal access — services the AG complaint says GEO is not providing to the legal standard. By barring DOH inspectors from the medical unit specifically, the AG argues the state cannot verify whether detainees with HIV, cancer, diabetes, or heart disease are receiving required care.
When state health inspectors arrived at Delaney Hall on May 27–28, GEO allowed them into the food service areas for approximately 90 minutes — roughly 11 a.m. to noon — and then turned them away. Blocked areas included:
- The medical unit
- Sleeping areas and dormitories
- Shower, bathing, and bathroom facilities
- HVAC and ventilation systems
The AG complaint states that without full access, officials cannot “ascertain whether Defendant is taking sufficient precautions to mitigate the serious and unchecked risk of communicable diseases.” A confirmed tuberculosis case had been transported from Delaney Hall to University Hospital in Newark in late May 2026.
Additional conditions reported by visiting lawmakers and documented in the AG complaint and contemporaneous press coverage: spoiled or rotten food with worms; metallic water that detainees called undrinkable; no toilet paper, toothpaste, or menstruation products; denial of medications for chronic conditions. Sen. Andy Kim reported that one woman had a miscarriage with no medical care provided.
DHS called the lawsuit “frivolous.” A May 29 DHS “Correct the Record” release stated that an Office of Professional Responsibility inspection found Delaney Hall compliant with 17 of 22 assessed standards. The five deficiencies found — ice buildup in freezers, improper fingerprint records, unlabeled cleaning equipment — did not address the AG’s food, water, or medical-care claims.
Trump “border czar” Tom Homan conducted a surprise Memorial Day visit and personally ate a meal described as “spaghetti with meat sauce, beans, green beans, bread, beverages, dessert.” He said: “The food was good.”
NJ Republican state Rep. Paul Kanitra said the food service provider is the same company that caters “$150,000 to $500,000 suites at MetLife Stadium.”
ICE awards GEO Group $1 billion, 15-year contract for Delaney Hall.
Newark sues GEO Group over lack of certificate of occupancy; federal court takes over case.
Contract signed. Facility begins reopening.
Facility opens; first detainees arrive.
Confrontation at facility. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) arrested for trespassing (charges later dropped). Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) indicted on 3 counts of assaulting/interfering with federal officers; pleaded not guilty.
Four detainees escape through a sheetrock wall amid an uprising over food conditions. Two recaptured within days; one on July 18.
Jean Wilson Brutus, 41 (Haitian national), dies in custody one day after intake. First death at the facility.
~300 detainees begin coordinated hunger and labor strike over food and medical-care conditions.
Protests surround facility. ICE deploys pepper balls. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) pepper-sprayed.
NJ DOH inspectors allowed into cafeteria only; barred from medical unit, sleeping areas, bathrooms.
NJ AG Jennifer Davenport (D) files lawsuit in Essex County Superior Court. Newark Mayor Baraka files parallel city lawsuit.
Governor Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ)— New Jersey’s 57th governor, inaugurated January 20, 2026. Former U.S. Representative (NJ-11). First female Democratic governor of New Jersey. Backed the lawsuit and stated: “If the GEO Group — with a $1 billion government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump Administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building.”
AG Jennifer Davenport (D) — Appointed by Gov. Sherrill, confirmed February 24, 2026. The Delaney Hall suit is her first major public legal action as AG.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) — Won re-election June 2026 with 70.3% of the vote. Filed a parallel city lawsuit seeking to close the facility entirely. Baraka had been arrested at the facility in May 2025 (charges later dropped).
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) — Faces a 3-count federal indictment for assaulting and interfering with federal officers during the May 9, 2025 confrontation. Pleaded not guilty. Pending; presumed innocent.
“If GEO has nothing to hide, there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access.”
Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), June 2, 2026
The Trump administration has consistently defended GEO Group and Delaney Hall. DHS describes the lawsuit as “frivolous” sanctuary-politician theater. Tom Homan’s Memorial Day visit was staged as a direct rebuttal to Democratic messaging. The administration argues that New Jersey has no jurisdiction over a federal immigration detention facility and that its health-inspection claims are pretextual.
In July 2025, a federal court ruled that New Jersey could not block private detention centers from operating — a precedent the federal government will likely invoke in response to the AG’s new Essex County lawsuit.
Instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions, ICE sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire. Civilians were tackled and restrained, and agents fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd.
These aren't protesters; these people are fake, they're all paid for.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Trump at a Cabinet meeting, dismissing Delaney Hall demonstrators. Reported by Fox News and NJ1015.
- NJ AG press release — lawsuit filing (June 2, 2026)
- NJ Governor's office release — Sherrill statement
- GEO Group — 15-year ICE contract announcement (April 2, 2025)
- DOJ — Rep. LaMonica McIver indictment
- ICE — Jean Wilson Brutus death notice (Dec. 2025)
- Bloomberg Law — NJ sues GEO Group
- NBC News — NJ Delaney Hall lawsuit
- Washington Examiner — NJ AG sues Delaney Hall
- Fox News — DHS inspection findings contradict AG claims
- Philadelphia Inquirer — Delaney Hall lawsuit
- Time — Inside Delaney Hall hunger strike
- GEO Group SEC 8-K — FY2025 financial results