Delaney Hall strikers hit GEO with labor stoppage

In Newark, detainees at the Delaney Hall ICE facility have been on strike for nearly two weeks, demanding the chance to speak with Gov. Mikie Sherrill, reviews of their cases, and ultimately freedom. Their refusal to work—despite GEO Group’s “voluntary work pr

When the detainees at Newark’s Delaney Hall ICE facility stopped working, it wasn’t a slogan. It was a daily decision—kitchen. laundry. cleaning and maintenance—made inside a center that keeps roughly a thousand people trapped in DHS custody. The move began as both hunger and labor strike on May 22. but it quickly hardened into a fight over labor and control. with hundreds gathering outside the facility to support those striking inside.

For nearly two weeks. organizers say. the demands have centered on one thing detainees consider impossible to get through the normal channels: the chance to speak with New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. along with reviews of their cases and “ultimately. their freedom.” In a May 31 letter titled “We Demand Freedom. ” a group of detained people said the strike is near-unanimous and ongoing. writing that “people detained have all voluntarily stopped working and assisting with facility operations.” In a June 3 letter. they described what they say has followed—“subjected to reprisals. discrimination. mockery. mistreatment. and threats” since their strike began.

Inside Delaney Hall, the workers are the detainees themselves. They serve as custodians, line cooks, hairdressers, laundry workers, and janitors. The facility is operated by GEO Group, ICE’s largest private contractor and Delaney Hall’s operator. GEO Group runs what it calls a “voluntary work program” that, in practice, keeps the center operating.

The language detainees say they are being governed by is stark. A GEO Group detainee handbook reviewed in connection with the strike lays out daily wages that are sharply low. It says that “Any resident assigned to work in the kitchen will be paid $4.00 per day. ” with laundry work details and barbershop workers paid $3.00 per day. Special work details are paid $2.00 per day. while “All other job assignments are $1.00 per day.” The handbook also states that “Ordinarily you will not be permitted to work more than eight hours per day or 40 hours per week.”.

The same document lists prices that detainees must cover through the commissary—costs that can add up quickly against $1- and $2-a-day pay. It lists a pair of shoes at $24.28, a blanket at eight dollars, and ID cards at $5 each, noting that detainees must pay to replace IDs if damaged.

While the program is labeled “voluntary,” the handbook includes language that treats resistance as a serious offense. It says “encouraging others to participate in a work stoppage or to refuse to work” is a “high offense” punishable by disciplinary transfer. isolation. or criminal proceedings. The detainees who signed the June 3 letter wrote that they have been threatened with punishments if they refuse to work—threats they say include being deported. transferred to “punishment units. ” and moved to another detention center.

“They are trying to force us to work in all areas of the facility (cleaning, kitchen, maintenance, laundry, floor polishing)” the detained strikers wrote. They added that GEO Group staffers tell them, “They tell us we have no rights here.”

Cosecha New Jersey organizer Cat Adorno said the strikes are hitting the parts of Delaney Hall that staff says are kept running by detainees. “They don’t have cleaning staff, they don’t have kitchen staff,” Adorno said. “Those jobs, the detainees are the ones that do that.”

Adorno also described what supporters say is worsening inside the walls—hearing “the place is becoming really dirty. ” that it “started to smell like feces. ” and that guards are growing more aggressive. She said detained people are being threatened with transfer or additional charges if they do not resume their work.

Andrew Free, an immigration lawyer and journalist who researches conditions in ICE detention, put the motive in plain terms. “The profit margins of facilities like Delaney Hall depend on coercing people into working for otherwise illegal rates,” Free said. “The way you keep the place clean is you use the people who are inside to clean it.”.

Free said the strike is doing more than stopping work—it is pressuring GEO Group’s bottom line. “By withholding their labor, Free said, detained people ‘are in a real way hitting GEO where it hurts.’” He described it as undermining revenue, which he said is why “the repression is so harsh.”

That pressure collides with an approach GEO Group appears to use to frame compliance as both necessary and constrained. GEO Group did not answer questions about the strike or whether Delaney Hall cleaning and kitchen staff can sustain the facility without detainee labor. In a statement. a GEO Group spokesperson said. “In all instances. our support services are monitored by ICE. including by on-site agency personnel…to ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements.”.

Outside, the labor dispute has become a rallying point for broader union support. For more than a year. a group of union activists calling itself “Labor Eyes On ICE” has held monthly vigils at Delaney Hall. On Sunday. members of at least 12 unions—including the Teamsters and the American Federation of Teachers—picketed on a dusty road just under half a mile from the building. Police barricades and lines kept them from getting within detainees’ earshot.

Chants came from teachers and librarians. and other workers showed up as well. including Amazon warehouse workers and university clerical staff. In a nearby tent. masked medics wearing red-tape crosses on their arms handed out goggles to protect people from tear gas. The medics said quietly that in their day-to-day lives, many of them are unionized medical professionals.

Inside that protest space, some speakers made connections that go well beyond the fence line. Mitch Israel. an organizer with the Teamsters at Amazon. said the company’s ties to ICE were central to his focus this week. “Amazon actually loses money on its package delivering business most years,” Israel said. “And it funds that by using its cloud computing platform. Amazon Web Services. to get huge contracts with ICE. with Palantir. and other groups that allow it to fund its abuse of workers. There is a direct connection between these things.”.

Some union members framed the strike as a demand that extends to workplaces and campuses. Isaac Jimenez. a member of the administrative workers’ union at Rutgers University. said his employer’s community has been calling for a sanctuary campus for over a year. “We’re supporting and uplifting the demands of the striking detainees and calling for this place to be shut down. ” Jimenez said. “calling on our governor. Mikie Sherrill. to meet with the strikers. and to help shut this place down as well.” He said the movement “only really gotten to a head in the past 10 days. ” but has been growing “for over a year. since Delaney Hall’s been reopened.”.

Sherrill’s office did announce an increase during the strike. On Thursday. 13 days into the strike. Sherrill announced a $12 million increase in funding for legal services—enough to fund legal aid for “all low-income detainees in Delaney Hall.” Supporters argue that legal help matters. but the detainees’ stated demands also insist on access and freedom. not just representation.

Behind the wages and punishments lies a long-running dispute over whether detainee labor should be governed by federal employment rules. Free said detainees’ dollar-a-day rates have held since 1950. when they were established by Congress and were keyed to the “international standard for prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. ” described as “three Swiss francs.” Since then. several courts have ruled that the Fair Labor Standards Act—which sets the federal minimum wage—does not apply to people detained by ICE. Still. Free said the legal battle is ongoing. with more than a dozen lawsuits moving through the courts regarding involuntary work for unjust pay in ICE detention.

GEO Group’s operation, meanwhile, appears built to survive resistance—because it can treat the strike itself as discipline. In the detainee handbook, “engaging in, or inciting a group demonstration” is also listed as a “high offense” and “prohibited act.”

Supporters say the consequences of striking are not only threats and punishment inside the facility. but also the shifting of who leaves—and when. Free said it’s “generally cheaper to let people go than to transfer strikers to different facilities.” He pointed to releases of some detained people during the strike. including “an 18-year-old who was freed from Delaney Hall earlier this week after missing her high school prom.” For Free. that outcome is part of the strike’s predictable cycle—“just as much a predictable consequence of these hunger and labor strikes as the repression and retaliation.”.

As the days pass. the conflict inside Delaney Hall remains rooted in the same demand detainees have written and repeated: work stopped. access requested. cases reviewed. and the claim that the people inside should not be treated as labor they can be compelled to provide. Outside. union supporters and community activists keep showing up. gathering in the same neighborhood for the same reason—because what happens to people trapped in ICE custody isn’t only a policy question. It’s daily life, measured in dollars per day and in whether anyone inside gets heard.

Delaney Hall ICE GEO Group Mikie Sherrill detainee strike labor stoppage Newark union protests Teamsters American Federation of Teachers Rutgers Cosecha New Jersey