What does the mayor say about it?
Baraka says the facility lacks the proper city permits in order to open, including a certificate of occupancy. He appeared Tuesday and Wednesday outside the facility’s gates, aiming to gain entry but ultimately being denied.
This comes as the mayor, who is the son of late poet and activist Amiri Baraka, is in a crowded Democratic primary to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat. Baraka has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration, arguing the president is pushing constitutional due process limits.
“It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue in my mind. This is an issue of human rights, an issue of due process, an issue of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States,” he said this week. “We are afraid and opposed and alarmed by them setting up a detention center.”
The city says Delaney Hall has permit issues such as needing grounded electrical outlets in a half-dozen rooms in the facility, and a new entry gate that needs a permit related to electrical work, among other things. That’s according to code inspection documents submitted in legal filings for the city’s case against GEO Group. The inspection didn’t find any problems with how fire extinguishers had been serviced, and said exit signs were properly installed.
Where does the company running the facility stand?
Florida-based GEO Group said the mayor is politicizing the situation and that city officials didn’t object when the Obama administration operated the facility as an ICE processing center.
Christopher Ferreira, a company spokesperson, said via a statement that the facility is creating “hundreds of unionized jobs, with an average annual salary of $105,000, and is expected to contribute $50 million to the local Newark economy.”
In legal filings, the company has argued there’s no legal standing for the city to seek a preliminary injunction based on the “purported violations of city codes.”