"The only way to make this right for our communities is to shut it down and make sure the failures we’ve seen never happen again."
Shut down Delaney Hall and prevent similar failures from happening again.
Occurrences
While we do not believe Delaney Hall should continue to operate and is unfit to house detainees, as an immediate step, we urge you to require GEO Group to operate the facility in a manner consistent with current law and the U.S. Constitution or to take immediate steps to close the facility.
I will continue pressing Secretary Mullin to abandon this project and will continue to fight attempts by this administration to impose broken immigration policies on New Jersey.
Evidence
New Jersey sued GEO Group after inspectors were blocked from a full Delaney Hall inspection; the filing says Senator Andy Kim and Rep. Rob Menendez visited the facility, detainees reported poor conditions, and GEO still refused full access.
On June 4, Kim was still publicly discussing what he saw inside Delaney Hall, while the facility remained a live flashpoint with ongoing allegations of poor conditions and clashes outside.
Kim and other New Jersey delegation members wrote that Delaney Hall was unfit, urged lawful operation, and asked DHS to close it if problems were not fixed.
Kim's office said he led a delegation letter after oversight visits, seeking accountability and possible closure if GEO Group did not follow the law.
Kim filed amendments including one to review Delaney Hall conditions and pause GEO payments and new detainee intake until issues were fixed.
The Senate rejected the motion on Kim Amendment No. 5545, whose purpose was funding inspections of the Delaney Hall Detention Facility, 46-53.
Kim's office said his amendments sought audits, medical care requirements, de-escalation training, and restrictions on detention expansion tied to Delaney Hall failures.
The Senate passed S. 2 as amended by 52-47; Kim voted Nay.
New Jersey said GEO Group operated Delaney Hall, blocked full health inspections, and that Kim had gone inside to speak with detainees on May 23.
GEO Group lists Delaney Hall at 451 Doremus Avenue with capacity 1000 and client U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Guardian reported dozens of women detained inside Delaney Hall joined a hunger and labor strike over conditions and case delays.
The report quoted Kim saying the way to make things right was to shut Delaney Hall and ensure the failures never happen again.
Assessments
Delaney Hall remained operating during the relevant lookback, with continuing detention, alleged poor conditions, state litigation over blocked inspections, and no completed shutdown or enacted federal safeguards. Kim did materially pursue the promise through oversight visits, delegation letters demanding closure if violations were not fixed, and Senate amendments for inspections, payment pauses, medical care, audits, and limits tied to Delaney Hall failures, but those amendments failed and the underlying outcome was not delivered.
Delaney Hall was still operating during the lookback window, and New Jersey's June 2026 filing plus Kim's continued public pressure show the issue remained active rather than resolved. Kim appears to have pressed the matter through visits and public criticism, but there is no evidence that the facility was shut down or that similar failures were prevented yet, so the promise is unresolved.