Life inside the Delaney Hall ICE detention camp is a travesty | Moira Donegan

The immigrants’ courage is matched only by the severity of their limited options. Ultimately, the pressure for change will have to come from the outside At Delaney Hall, an ICE detention camp for captured immigrants in Newark, New Jersey, operated privately by the for-profit contractor Geo Group, the food is spoiled, and sometimes has maggots. Those who are imprisoned there, who have not been convicted of any crime, are forced to work for about $1 a day. Conditions are overcrowded and unsanitary; there is only limited and inadequate medical care. Those inside say that they are being beaten and pepper-sprayed; the DHS has denied allegations of mistreatment, but the Geo group issued a statement last week admitting to at least one instance of “physical altercation” that included “limited use of chemical agents”. Like at other ICE camps, members of Congress have been denied access to the facility, in violation of the law. This week, the DHS also “denied full access” to New Jersey state health inspectors. Immigrants inside Delaney Hall have organized a labor strike and a hunger strike, trying to call attention to the inhumane conditions they are being held in. Outside, immigration force