“What is happening at Delaney Hall, the ICE facility in New Jersey, is disgraceful and deeply alarming. Our sisters and brothers detained at that center are on hunger strike to protest rotten food, inaccessible medical care, and deplorable conditions. No human being should be subjected to this kind of treatment. Human rights do not end at the doors of a detention center.

Whether we are talking about Delaney Hall or the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, where children are facing the same abhorrent conditions, these facilities are a threat to our community’s civil rights to safety, dignity, and due process.

For months, local elected officials and advocates have been blocked from conducting oversight visits, raising serious concerns about what is happening inside. I want to thank the community members who have been showing up at Delaney Hall, as well as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Congresswoman Monica McIver, for standing alongside them by putting their bodies on the line to stand up for the rights of those being detained. I also want to commend New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport for suing GEO Group, the private company operating and profiting from this facility and many others across the country.

We must have transparency and accountability in these facilities but, to be clear, we believe what we are hearing from detainees and their loved ones. These facilities are a disgrace and must be shut down. I stand with the community members demanding answers and justice. We cannot allow fear, cruelty, and intimidation to define our immigration system or our values as a country. Every person deserves dignity, humane treatment, access to medical care, and their constitutional rights, regardless of immigration status.

Silence is not an option. We must organize, speak out, show up for neighbors, and hold those responsible for this cruelty accountable.

To support directly impacted immigrant families, join protests, or provide supplies, visit handsoffnyc.com/delaney.”