Sen. Cory Booker wrote to DHS and ICE that GEO proposed Delaney Hall as a potential ICE detention site and urged officials to reconsider opening a new privately operated immigration detention center in New Jersey.
Official Senate letter establishes the federal Delaney Hall detention issue and the requested federal action: not opening a private immigration detention facility in New Jersey.
AP reported that Rep. Frank Pallone called the Delaney Hall-related arrest outrageous and said DOJ and ICE were weaponizing the facility after the May 2025 confrontation at the Newark detention center.
Pallone publicly criticized ICE and DOJ over Delaney Hall in the 119th Congress, showing continued public opposition, though this report does not quote him explicitly calling for closure.
The Jersey Vindicator reported that Pallone returned to Delaney Hall, said the facility could not continue to generate profit from horrendous human suffering, and said he would continue to call for accountability and carry out oversight of the facility.
This is direct later-term evidence that Pallone continued public pressure and oversight against Delaney Hall during his current House term. His quoted language strongly supports continued opposition, though it frames the demand as accountability and oversight rather than an explicit closure demand in the quoted sentence.
The same report said Pallone had visited Delaney Hall earlier in 2026 and returned on May 25, 2026, amid a hunger and labor strike by about 300 detainees.
Pallone did more than issue a one-time statement; he made repeated facility visits and continued oversight activity, consistent with the promise to keep pressing the issue.
The report described Delaney Hall as an active ICE detention facility with ongoing protests, a detainee strike, and federal lawmakers conducting oversight visits in May 2026.
Delaney Hall remained open as of May 2026, so if the promise were interpreted as achieving closure rather than continuing to call for closure, the closure itself had not been achieved by the as-of date.