ICE Says Detainees Are ‘Worst of the Worst.’ Government Data Disagrees.
"Federal officials said they are removing killers and rapists from the streets. Data obtained by The New York Times indicates most detainees at a Newark facility haven’t been convicted of crimes.
When reports emerged last month that immigrants held at a Newark detention center were staging a hunger strike to protest conditions there, demonstrators mobilized and New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, demanded to be let in so that she could inspect the building.
Federal officials rejected her demand and said that she and other Democratic officials in New Jersey should be grateful that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was removing killers, rapists and other criminals — “the worst of the worst,” they said — from the state.
But the federal government’s own data, including some from internal documents The New York Times obtained this week, indicates that people with criminal convictions account for just a fraction of the detainees at the Newark center, Delaney Hall.
In early April, ICE stopped updating its once-regular public reports on the number of people being detained at its facilities. The internal data obtained by The Times shows that of 591 people held at Delaney Hall this week, 76 — about 13 percent — had criminal convictions and 123 — about 21 percent — had pending criminal charges.
The detainees had been at the center for about 80 days on average, the data shows.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement on Friday that it was “working rapidly and overtime to remove these aliens from detentions centers to their final destination — home.”
Delaney Hall’s population has dropped sharply since ICE’s April report, which showed 891 people (833 men and 58 women) being held there as of April 2. Less than 10 percent — 61 men and two women — were classified as criminals.
When people are detained, and then periodically during their detention, they are divided into categories that reflect the level of security risk they are believed to pose and then housed accordingly, according to ICE.
The categories — low, medium low, medium high and high — are based on factors such as previous convictions, disciplinary records and “special management concerns,” ICE says. As of April 2, just one Delaney Hall detainee was considered a high security risk, ICE data shows; 789, or just under 90 percent, were deemed low risk.
Immigration officials also assign detainees to “ICE threat level” categories determined by their “criminality,” including “the recency of the criminal behavior and its severity.” They are ranked on a scale of 1 to 3, with 1 being the most severe. Detainees with no criminal convictions are classified as “no ICE threat level.”
As of April 2, just six detainees were classified in the highest threat level. About 90 percent were said to be no ICE threat, agency data shows.
“If you were looking for an ICE facility that holds a large number of dangerous criminals,” Austin Kocher, a political and legal geographer and research assistant professor at Syracuse University, wrote in a recent edition of his newsletter on Substack, “Delaney Hall just isn’t it.”
Professor Kocher, whose research focuses on the politics and policies of the U.S. immigration and refugee system, did a more fine-grained analysis of the criminal detainee population. He used data from the Deportation Data Project, which collects and posts government immigration enforcement data sets, some released voluntarily by the government and some obtained through public records requests.
He found that of 844 people detained at Delaney Hall as of March 10, about 12 percent were convicted criminals, about 18 percent had pending criminal charges and about 70 percent had been accused only of immigration violations.
Of the 99 people with criminal convictions, none had been found guilty of homicide, sexual assault or drug trafficking. About 70 percent were convicted of misdemeanors; just nine had felonies, according to Professor Kocher.
For the past two weeks, Delaney Hall has been the site of steady and sometimes violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement officers. At least 90 protesters have been arrested since May 26.
As Ms. Sherrill sought access to the center, federal officials insisted that detainees were being well cared for and denied there was a hunger strike. They accused her of engaging in a “political stunt.”
“These sanctuary politicians should be thanking ICE law enforcement for removing murderers, rapists, pedophiles and drug traffickers from their communities,” Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in a statement on May 25. “We need these sanctuary politicians to stop peddling this garbage and cooperate with us.”
The statement was accompanied by a list of 16 detainees who had been arrested in New Jersey, with brief descriptions of what was described as each one’s “criminal history.”
The offenses cited included homicide, sexual assault, drug trafficking, aggravated assault, illegal possession of a weapon and enticement of a minor for indecent purposes. It was unclear whether a “criminal history” reflected convictions, charges or some combination.
Delaney Hall is run by GEO Group, one of the largest private prison operators in the United States, under a $1 billion, 15-year federal contract.
The two-story center has 1,000 beds, according to a GEO Group news release from last year, and a permitted capacity of just under 1,200 beds, according to filings in a company lawsuit against New Jersey officials.
Asked this week for current data on the detainees and their criminal records, the Department of Homeland Security responded with a statement that did not include the requested information.
“It is a crime to enter the United States illegally,” the statement said. “Everyone being held inside Delaney Hall broke the law. If you come to our country illegally, we will find you and arrest you.”
Allison McCann contributed reporting.
Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times."
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