The industrial estate at heart of fight over US immigration crackdown

NEWARK: A forgotten industrial estate in Newark, New Jersey is the latest frontline in the fight over US President Donald Trump’s pursuit of mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Tensions at the site worsened on Friday when Newark mayor Ras Baraka was briefly detained while protesting against the newly reopened deportation centre.

Little more than a month after Trump’s inauguration in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inked a billion-dollar, 15-year contract with outsourcing giant Geo to transform Delaney Hall into a 1,000-bed detention centre.

It dwarfed a similar for-profit facility in nearby Elizabeth that has some 300 beds, compared to the many thousands of people in New Jersey subject to removal proceedings.

At that location, many detainees wear orange scrubs even though officials insist they are not prisoners and enjoy perks like the use of tablet computers.

Bars and grilles cover windows, detainees face prison-like regimes, and surveillance cameras keep watch.

There is an emphasis on suicide prevention in the centres, with posters in group cells encouraging detainees to volunteer to return home.

In February, acting ICE director Caleb Vitello, who since moved jobs, praised the Newark site -- the first new removal facility since Trump’s return -- as helping “streamline” the president’s “mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens”.

But there is friction with the host area as Newark is a sanctuary city, meaning local police do not routinely cooperate with ICE, and the city has sued to prevent the new detention site from operating.

‘More afraid’

Detainees started to arrive on May 1, Geo told AFP, sparking condemnation from Baraka, who is running to be statewide governor and fiercely opposes Trump’s migrant policy.

Newark’s Department of Public Safety visited the vast fortified Delaney Hall site this week demanding to inspect it -- but were refused entry.

Baraka tried to get inside Tuesday and again on Wednesday, when the location was reinforced with armed federal agents, but was turned away both times.