NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Thursday the reopening of the Delaney Hall Facility in Newark as a 1,000-bed federal immigration processing and detention center.
The facility, operating under a $1 billion contract, marks an expansion of ICE’s detention capacity in the Northeast, according to ICE and the company that runs it.
The reopening follows an agreement with the facility’s owner, making it the first new detention center to open under the Trump administration, according to ICE.
“This detention center is the first to open under the new administration,” acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said. “The location near an international airport streamlines logistics and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens from our communities.”
The Delaney Hall Facility was previously used to house immigrant detainees between 2011 and 2017. Its reopening expands ICE’s enforcement and removal operations in the region.
GEO Group, the private prison company that operates the facility, also holds the contract for ICE Air, which uses Newark Liberty International Airport to transfer detained individuals domestically or deport them internationally, according to the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
In December, multiple sites were under consideration for ICE contracts. “GEO’s support services include exclusive use of the facility by ICE along with security, maintenance, food services, access to recreational areas, medical care, and legal counsel,” GEO Group wrote in statement. “We estimate the value of the facility to be $60 million dollars in the first year of operations. We estimate the 15-year value of the contract, with cost of living adjustments, to be $1 billion dollars.”
The NJAIJ called the facility’s reopening “a significant setback for New Jersey.” While the state’s federal representatives have regularly spoken out against ICE detention expansion, the group criticized the state legislature for failing to advance laws that protect immigrants from ICE data requests and overreach. The organization further warned that ICE’s own statements suggest the facility will serve as a regional hub for enforcement across the Northeast.
While the administration has vowed to prioritize criminals for arrest and deportation, data suggests that many detainees do not have criminal records. As of Feb. 9, 2025, 54.7% of the 41,169 detainees in ICE custody had no criminal record, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit is leading the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. In mid-February, Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said arrests inside the U.S. (rather than at the border) were three times higher than during the same period last year under President Joe Biden's term. But he insisted it was still not enough.
“I’m not satisfied,” Homan said. “We got to get more.”
Despite the administration’s aggressive approach, it has released limited details about the number of arrests. Between Jan. 23 and Jan. 31, ICE published daily arrest figures on X but then stopped. The agency’s data dashboard provides quarterly figures, but the most recent data is from September 2024.
During the brief period when ICE shared daily updates, the average number of arrests per day was 787, compared to 311 during a 12-month period ending Sept. 30 under the Biden administration.
Carrying out large-scale deportations presents logistical challenges. ICE has a limited number of enforcement and removal officers, detention beds, and aircraft for deportations—and these resources have remained stagnant for years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.