Hudson County will no longer house federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees as of November 1.
In a short letter obtained by The Jersey Journal, County Executive Tom DeGise informed ICE officials Friday that the county will stop accepting or detaining ICE detainees in roughly a month and a half.
“To whom it may concern: Please be advised that effective November 1, the Hudson County Correctional Center will no longer house or accept any ICE detainees for housing,” DeGise wrote. “Until that time, the detainees currently housed at the facility can remain on the same terms as before.”
County spokesman Jim Kennelly confirmed that DeGise signed the letter Friday, and that it was sent the same day.
The notice appears to put an end to the county’s controversial contract with the federal agency, which has angered activists across the county for years.
Under the terms of the deal, ICE pays the county $120 per day per detainee housed at the jail. In 2018, the jail housed roughly 700 detainees, an arrangement that brought in millions of dollars a year. But since then, the ICE population at the jail has dwindled, a trend that was accelerated by COVID-19, which led to the release of more than 100 detainees.
Amid the decrease in revenue, county officials faced sustained opposition from activists, dozens of whom phoned into commissioners’ meetings and held protests outside the county executive’s home.
This spring, roughly five months after renewing the ICE contract for a decade, officials reversed themselves. County Executive Tom DeGise expressed openness to ending the contract “under certain circumstances”; namely, finding a way to replace the revenue generated from the deal.
It’s not clear if county officials have yet lined up a way to replace that money, but Kennelly cited the possibility of filling the budget gap by housing federal marshals’ prisoners or state inmates.
DeGise’s letter noted that the withdrawal from the contract does not apply to other federal detainees, such as those under the jurisdiction of federal marshals.
There are currently 45 ICE detainees at the jail, according to jail Director Ron Edwards.
“It’s a good day,” Hudson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Anthony Vainieri said. “It took longer than we thought. The pandemic held us up for a year, (but) we’re getting out of it, like we said.”
County commissioner Bill O’Dea, who has lobbied for the end to the contract, thanked the county executive in a texted statement.
“Our work is not done yet though,” he said. “We need to focus on helping the detainees get released and or expediting their hearing process to insure that ICE does (not) try to vindictively transfer them far away.”
An ICE spokesperson declined to comment on the letter. Earlier this week, the spokesperson, who declined to be named, did not respond to emailed questions about where detainees would go if the contract ends, but said that any transfers would take place in “a safe and humane manner under the supervision of trained and experienced personnel.”
“The health, welfare, and safety of non-citizens in ICE custody will continue to be one of the agency’s highest priorities,” the spokesperson said.
ICE contracts in New Jersey have faced a rising tide of opposition. Last month, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill barring jails in the state from entering into new contracts with ICE, which would have no effect on existing contracts.
Earlier this year, officials in Essex County announced an end to their contract with ICE, while Bergen County officials said they were no longer accepting detainees.
Earlier this week, the Hudson County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Advisory Board, a body that includes immigration advocates, a representative of ICE, and a priest, held a virtual meeting with county officials for a status update on the contract.
In that meeting, county officials outlined plans to decrease the detainee population through “attrition,” according to two immigration advocates present at the meeting.
Serges Demefack, the End Detention and Deportation project coordinator at the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee and an Advisory Board member, hailed the approaching end to the contract as a “very, very good” thing.
“We cannot jail our way to (building) our communities,” Demefack said.