To understand Delaney Hall’s growth and conditions, one has to go back to the 1980s, when the United States began rapidly expanding its prison system, and governments turned to private corporations to meet demand. This spread to immigration policy, resulting in the detention of Cuban refugees in the Mariel boatlift and Chinese migrants in the Golden Venture shipwreck. GEO Group had been in charge of the facility from 2011 to 2017, housing 450 immigration detaineesduring that period.

Reports from the field by Ryan Novosielski:

5.29.26

A week ago, Delaney Hall became ground zero for grassroots resistance in support of a hunger and labor strike inside the facility. Detainees launched the strike to demand an end to the egregious and inhumane conditions inside the facility. The crowds have grown, and the tension has heightened over the last couple of days. It’s Friday, and protesters are making the same calls to the wider community to join them on the ground in support of the detainees' calls to end their detention.

Mayor Ras Baraka delivered his 12th State of the City address on Tuesday night, centering his message on Newark’s resilience and growth in the face of adversity. Baraka chose to focus on key issues like housing, education and public safety, while highlighting the city’s progress and strength. 

Lawrenceville, NJ - On September 21st, New Jersey gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill (D) and Jack Ciattarelli (R) clashed in their first heated debate over the issues important to state residents. Around 1,600 people gathered at Rider University to attend the candidates’ first of two scheduled debates before the election on November 4th.

Trenton, NJ - New Jersey prides itself as the “Garden State.” Yet the paradox is stark: while family farms harvest peaches, tomatoes, kale, and corn, schoolchildren in lower-income districts still miss out on the local gifts of the Garden State at lunchtime. Simultaneously, small and mid-sized growers say they need steadier, closer-to-home buyers to make ends meet.

Food inequity in New Jersey can be highlighted by data estimates that in 2022, almost 262,000 children lived in food-insecure households. Those numbers jumped alongside inflation as pandemic support unwound. In turn, for many school-age children, the lunch line is often the surest path to a fresh and healthy meal. 

Trenton, NJ – New Jersey’s $58.8 billion FY2026 budget bill, the largest ever for the state, passed both the Senate and the Assembly on Monday, June 30, and was signed by Gov. Philip Murphy late in the evening, successfully avoiding a shutdown. The passage mostly followed party lines, with the Senate approval coming through at 26-13 with one senator not voting, and the Assembly voting 52-27 with a single abstention.

Newark, NJ - On June 14, while tanks roll down the streets of D.C. celebrating the sitting President’s birthday, New Jersey residents from Montclair to Cape May will gather in parks, town squares, and overpasses to declare: this is not what democracy looks like. This is the message behind the nationwide “No Kings” Day of Defiance — and in New Jersey, that message hits especially hard.

Newark, NJ - When six Asian international students at Rutgers University found their student statuses abruptly terminated in April 2024, they were left in legal limbo. Represented by the ACLU of New Jersey, the Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project, and attorneys from the Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest and Constitutional Law, the students challenged the terminations in federal court—and won a preliminary injunction on May 8, 2025, in the United States District Court of New Jersey.

Newark, NJ - New Jersey Senate bill S1292, which attempts to establish a state definition of anti-semitism and to appropriate $100,000 for a “public awareness campaign to promote bias crime reporting,” was introduced on January 9, 2024. The New Jersey General Assembly Bill A3558 was later introduced on February 4, in a bid to garner support from the full state legislature.

A number of federal representatives from NJ, including a few currently running for governor, have expressed support of the bill - with some having accepted funding and support from AIPAC. Therefore, support for Israel is not uncommon amongst state lawmakers. Further, the bills have already gained the support of a number of state legislators running for re-election, many of whom gathered in Trenton earlier this year to make their support public.