1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

Delaney Hall is not a detention facility. It is a national emergency. Detainees at the privately-run Newark, New Jersey facility are on hunger strike over food reported to “very often” contain maggots, denied medical care, and held in extreme heat. Fifty immigrants have died in ICE custody since this administration took office — the most in at least two decades. A detainee already died at Delaney Hall itself. When elected officials attempted to see these conditions for themselves, the Trump administration blocked them. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entry entirely. Health Department inspectors were turned away. Rep. LaMonica McIver was charged with assault by the Trump administration for attempting to conduct her constitutionally protected oversight duties. And on May 25, Sen. Andy Kim — a sitting United States Senator — was tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed by ICE agents in an armored vehicle while supporting hunger-striking detainees. This is not an accident. On May 11, ICE issued a memo further restricting congressional access to detention facilities, requiring lawmakers to identify detainees by name before being permitted to speak with them. The administration is systematically dismantling the oversight mechanisms that exist precisely to prevent abuse. Hakeem Jeffries said it plainly: the majority of detainees at Delaney Hall have no criminal record. We are calling on Congress to demand immediate, unrestricted access to Delaney Hall and all ICE detention facilities, hold emergency oversight hearings on detention conditions nationwide, reverse ICE’s May 11 memo restricting congressional access, drop the politically motivated charges against Rep. McIver, and investigate the use of chemical agents against Senator Kim and peaceful protesters. When a government gasses senators to hide what it is doing to people in cages, Congress must act. Now.