ICE Hastily Transfers Dozens of Women from Delaney Hall in NJ to Tents in Texas

The day after four people escaped from Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ, Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred dozens of women to a tent-like detention facility in El Paso, Texas.

One of the women got to speak with her family. She is from Ecuador, has authorization to work in the USA and had applied for permanent residency. Her sister said, “She specifically used the word animals—they were being treated like animals inhumanely the way they were transferred over to Texas. She said that they weren’t given any beds. They were in tents outside, just waiting for directions. She mentioned that they were being emotionally abused, and she just broke down when she said that.”

The woman’s family had also gotten to speak with her Thursday evening. “We did hear all of the banging that was going on in the background, and we would ask her, ‘What are those sounds?’ She said, ‘The men’s side, they keep wanting to escape. The alarms keep going off, but we’re just trying to keep it cool here on the women’s side of the facility.’”

Families and lawyers of detainees were persistently told by ICE that transfers were not in the works, but on Saturday the women were in El Paso, being told by ICE that within 72 hours they would be deported.

On Sunday, the woman told her family, “We have been lucky that they’re treating us well. We eat good food, we shower every day, they give us clean clothes every day.”

A female officer, “a very good person,” told the women that contrary to what they were told Saturday, they did not face immediate deportation.

The woman is married to a man. She has three children who are USA citizens. The woman’s mother and siblings are naturalized citizens. Her possibilities for naturalization may have ended when she was arrested for allegedly violating a restraining order. Her sister said when she and her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend (the father of her children) separated, they both took out restraining orders.

The charge against the woman was dismissed. The ex-boyfriend notified ICE, which took her into their custody before she could be released from jail.

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