New Jersey Boosts Immigrant Legal Defense Fund to $20 Million as Delaney Hall Dispute Continues

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on June 4 announced a $12 million increase to the state’s fund for immigrant legal defense and a new effort to recruit volunteer attorneys, steps her administration framed as protecting due process amid federal immigration enforcement.

The money raises the state’s Detention Deportation Defense Initiative to $20.2 million, which the state said would double its services and cover all low-income detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark. A separate program will train volunteer lawyers to take on emergency cases challenging detentions in federal court.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said detainees deserve “access to due process and a fair hearing under the law, regardless of where you were born.” Legal representation “has never been more important,” she said, “as the Trump Administration makes it more difficult for members of our community to challenge detention and deportation.”

The announcement came amid a heated fight over Delaney Hall, a detention center run by the private GEO Group. Detainees began a hunger strike on May 22 over conditions that they and advocates said included spoiled food, a lack of hygiene supplies, undrinkable water, and poor medical care, according to the state’s lawsuit.

On May 31, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) toured the facility with New Jersey Democratic Reps.

Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Josh Gottheimer called for it to be closed immediately, citing “unsanitary living conditions, lack of adequate medical care, and unhealthy food.”

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport sued the GEO Group on June 2 to force full access for state health inspectors, who the state said were allowed only a limited visit on May 28 and kept out of the medical unit, sleeping areas, and bathrooms. Sherrill said the company holds “a $1 billion government contract” and that residents “deserve transparency and accountability.”

The site has also drawn several protests, which led Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka to institute a curfew beginning May 31. Sherrill ordered the State Police to secure the area and, on May 31, said “masked individuals” attacked a barrier, threw projectiles, and set tires on fire.

“We simply cannot let ICE surge into our community,” she said, while urging peaceful protest.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rejected the criticism. It said detainees get three meals a day, clean water, and medical, dental, and mental health care, and that ICE “has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

DHS said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times after clashes began that Sherrill’s Memorial Day visit was “a political stunt” and that visitation was suspended because of what it described as riots, with protesters blocking the facility’s entrances on May 24. 

It said Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) was let in for oversight after he called Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, his former Senate colleague, and that officers used “the minimum amount of force necessary” before two people were arrested for assaulting federal officers.

In a June 4 statement, DHS said ICE arrested two men the day before in what it called a targeted operation, describing them as “criminal illegal aliens,” one with a record it said involved sexual exploitation of a minor and another wanted abroad for aggravated robbery.

 “ICE is not slowing down its efforts to arrest and remove the worst of the worst from our country,” acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in the statement. 

New Jersey created the legal-defense fund in 2018. The governor’s office said people facing deportation have no right to a court-appointed lawyer, unlike criminal defendants. State Senate President Nick Scutari and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, both Democrats, backed the new money.

Sherrill’s move came as Congress is moving to expand immigration funding. Early on June 5, the Senate passed in a 52–47 vote a roughly $70 billion bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of President Donald Trump’s second term, sending it to the House for final approval.

Jacki Thrapp contributed to this report.