Immigrants’ Rights Advocates Respond to Hudson County Renewing IGSA Detention Contract With ICE

HUDSON–Yesterday, Hudson County freeholders voted to renew its IGSA contract with ICE to detain immigrants in the Hudson County Jail. In response, immigrants’ rights advocates released the following statements:

“It is disheartening that majority of Hudson County Freeholders voted to continue the lucrative immigration detention contract with the federal immigration agency that often tears immigrant families apart. At the time local governments should push back egregious and harmful immigration enforcement activities, Hudson county chose profit over what’s right. Hudson and New Jersey residents deserve much better than that,” said Chia-Chia Wang, organizing and advocacy director, American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program.

“It was disappointing that the Freeholder’s rushed and voted to continue the IGSA agreement, without further review of what is written in the contract and without acknowledging Freeholder Torres’s request to table the item for further research and discussion. Clearly profits before humans was the driving point, given there are 800 ICE detainees to 400 inmates incarcerated in the facility,” said Sally Pillay, program director, First Friends of New Jersey and New York.

“We condemn this vote to renew the ICE contract with Hudson County Jail. With this vote, the county is making a deal to profit off of family separation of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants over the next decade,” said Johanna Calle, director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “Immigrants held at this jail experience some of the worst conditions in any detention facility in the country. In a moment when it has become increasingly clear that ICE’s cruel and racist tactics lead to family separation, immigrant communities and advocates demand all New Jersey counties and localities end all relationships with this rogue agency. Hudson County is the profiteering off of attacks on our communities while they fail to meet high standards for care of all detainees. We are committed to continue fighting end all detention and deportations in New Jersey and across the United States.”

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NJAIJ Member Organizations:  1199SEIU | 32BJ SEIU | American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey | American Friends Service Committee | Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey | Beacon Unitarian Universalist Church of Summit | Casa Freehold | Catholic Charities Diocese of Metuchen | Catholic Charities Diocese of Trenton | Centro Comunitario CEUS | Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War | Central Unitarian Church of Paramus – Social Action Committee | Community of Friends in Action | Drug Policy Alliance | El Centro Hispanoamericano | Faith in New Jersey | First Friends NJ & NY | Haiti Solidarity Network of the North East | Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey | Hudson Civic Action | Ironbound Community Corp. | Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) | Make the Road New Jersey | Latino Action Network | Latin American Legal Defense & Education Fund (LALDEF) | National Association of Social Workers – NJ Chapter | New Jersey Communities United | New Jersey Policy Perspective | New Labor | New Jersey Institute of Social Justice | New Jersey Working Families | OASIS | Statewide Parent Advocacy Network, Inc. | UU Faith Action NJ | The Social Responsibilities Council of The Unitarian Society of Ridgewood | Wind of the Spirit, Immigrant Center