The Delaney Hall detention center located at 451 Doremus Avenue in Newark, New Jersey sits along a three-mile stretch of warehouses, petrochemical plants, a water treatment plant, and fat rendering facility. Under the ground, pipelines snake along the avenue connecting the Colonial Pipeline and the Sunoco LP plant. Numerous brownfield sites, land contaminated by toxic spills, are scattered along the avenue. The area is a major spot for flooding due to the filled marshland which the buildings were built on. Flooding causes water to become contaminated by toxins on the ground and it overloads the water treatment facility. Delaney Hall houses immigrants from Central and South America who often left their countries because of violence and poverty. These migrants have become victims of the Trump administrations repressive immigration policy of mass incarceration and deportation. They now find themselves held in one of the most toxic environments in the United States. The environmental hazards stem not only from the physical dangers of pollution and carcinogens but the systemic racism that affects the health of Delaney Hall detainees and the residence of the nearby Ironbound neighborhood.

Figure 1 Heavy industry surrounds Delaney Hall. Photo by William Worosila.

The GEO Group, a for-profit private prison company, planned to reopen Delaney Hall after they were awarded a 15-year contract to manage the facility for ICE in February 2025. GEO Group planned to make a $38 million dollar renovation to the site but began construction without proper permits from the city of Newark. According to an ongoing lawsuit brought by the city, city officials witnessed construction but were denied entry for inspection by GEO Group security. Officials observed electrical and plumbing work performed on the building but without the proper permits. City Fire Officials were denied entry to the building to inspect the elevator system. The lawsuit claims that improper electrical work can cause fire hazards placing lives in danger as well as being a financial liability for the City of Newark. Faulty plumbing can cause dangerous gases to build up creating life threatening hazards. In addition, GEO Group failed to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy allowing people to live and work on the property.

GEO Group counterclaimed that the Certificate of Occupancy was grandfathered according to a previous filing with the city. They addressed inspections in an ICE Office of Responsibility Report in August 2025. The report redacted who performed the inspections, the population of the detainees as well as their sex. Parts of the inspection overview were also redacted. The Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) found the following deficiencies: the facility did not maintain proper refrigeration of food, overhead leakage near freezers, improper storage of cleaning products, and no inventory for hazardous materials. The report claimed officials spoke to thirty detainees about their detention and they did not have any complaints about the facility services. The facility received an acceptable/adequate rating even with multiple health violations.

Whether Delaney Hall’s drinking water is safe drinking water was brought into question by detainees at the end of 2025 after some detainees experienced illness and rashes and complaints of “foul smelling” water. According to an article in the Home News Tribune, samples of faucet water were taken by community advocates and lab tests were performed by Norma Bowe, a professor of public health and operator of the Global Grace Mobil Clinic.[1] The tests showed trace amounts of heavy metals which can cause organ damage and neurological disorders. GEO Group also assessed the building’s water with Garden State Laboratories and found the water to be clean and safe for drinking. Community advocates responded that there should be further testing of the water as the heavy metals findings were not zero. Geo Group did not respond to questions about the use of water filtration systems or if they made any upgrades to the water supply. [2]

The idea of the United States government housing immigrants in a toxic waste zone is unfathomable. Doremus Avenue has a long history of pollution which has earned it the nickname, “the chemical corridor.” The adjacent Ironbound neighborhood, which is predominately Black and Hispanic, has waged an ongoing battle against the companies polluting their land, air, and water. Environmental racism adds to physical toxins causing the community further harm by abuse from police, deficiencies in education, and low wages. The government further taxes the area by maintaining the Delaney Hall detention center as it willingly tucks immigrants away in a dystopian contamination zone.

[1] Hannan Adley, “Water Testing Brings Scrutiny at ICE Detention Center in Newark,” HeraldNews, January 5,2026.

[2] “Lab: Water at Delaney Hall Meets Safety Standards,” Daily Record, January 8, 2026.