18-04-2025
Immigrant advocates rally to stop Union County Jail from becoming ICE detention center
The protesters who gathered outside the Union County Administrative Building in Elizabeth on Thursday afternoon were echoing a message that was a theme nationwide that day: no more detention centers.
Residents, union members, faith leaders, and advocates came together on this "Communities Not Cages' National Day of Action to call on Union County Commissioners not to take bids from companies to run the Union County Jail complex.
"We're here outside the Union County Administration Building to say no to detention, to deportation, and no to family separation," said Viri Martinez, manager of member empowerment for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
The commissioners voted 6-3 at their March 27 meeting to solicit bids to sell off part of the jail complex, which has alarmed critics of immigrant detention centers, as the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has gained steam since Trump's return to the presidency in January.
The immigrant advocates are worried that a private prison company, such as CoreCivic, which operates the Elizabeth Detention Center located a few miles away, and the GEO Group, the owner of Delaney Hall in nearby Newark, which is looking to reopen it for detention, will win the bid and get a contract with U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement to open another detention center in a city of 135,000 where nearly 60% percent of population are Latino.
Elizabeth resident Brieny Billard, who came from the Dominican Republic, spoke out against any detention center opening in her city, outside the Administration Building, and later during the commissioners' meeting, while her five-month-old son was lying in a covered baby basket perched on a chair. Billard's husband was picked up by ICE agents on his way to work in January and is currently detained in a jail in Louisiana after being held briefly at the Elizabeth Detention Center.
Billard, speaking in Spanish (assisted with English translation by Haydi Torres, a community organizer for the immigrant rights group Movimiento Cosecha), implored the commissioners not to consider any bids to sell the jail to a private prison company that will operate it as an immigrant detention facility.
"That's why I want you to reconsider about opening a new ICE facility in the state, because many families will experience family separation," Billard said. She then said of her son, "He's five months old and his dad has been detained for the past three months. So, this baby has been growing up without his dad."
The commissioners were not scheduled to vote on any bids during the meeting. The County Counsel for Union County, Bruce Bergen, told the protesters in attendance that he will be joined by the county's manager, Edward Oatman, and some other county employees for a meeting on Tuesday with the Elizabeth-based immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey to get their input on the specifications for the bid.
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@
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This article originally appeared on Protest opposes county jail becoming detention facility
