NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody by homeland security at an ICE facility in New Jersey on Friday afternoon, according to Alina Habba, the Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” read the social media post from Habba.
Baraka is being held at the ICE Newark field office.
This is a developing story please check back for updates.
Context: the facility failed a fire inspection and is refusing to allow inspectors back onto the grounds or to correct the violations. The mayor and city council made a point of serving the notice in person previously, which was ignored. The GEO group are saying “fire safety is politics” and refusing to cooperate.
More context, based on this article:
The mayor refused to leave an ICE facility because the facility (Delaney Hall) is ignoring city requirements for inspections. Newark demands these safety inspections in part because the building is rated to house 1000 people, and ICE won’t or can’t say how many detainees are housed there. ICE is leasing this building from GEO, a private prison group.
So this isn’t just about adherence to fire codes. It’s about protecting the most vulnerable people from potentially deadly abuse by the US federal government.
Edit: Mayor was leading protests outside the facility. https://youtu.be/T9vbVKnNr6Q
Mayor and City Counsel are heroes, is what I read from that.
Tear up the fucking road going into that place and don’t let anyone in.
As I understand it, GEO and ICE are claiming the local officials have no business inspecting the private facilities. They believe they are beyond state inspection laws, and will only answer only to ICE regarding conditions.
Shiiit, who do they think they are, a fortune 500 company?
Sarcasm aside, it’s completely ridiculous. Even the big guys play nice with the fire service because nobody wants to get fucked by the insurance companies. I think the next step here would be to notify the GEO group’s insurers that they have multiple fire safety violations and they’re refusing to fix them.
Brilliant suggestion.
If this was federal land with a federal building I could imagine some legal opinion that lets them be fire traps outside the jurisdiction of the city, but just because the federal government leases a facility doesn’t make it then an exclusively federal building.
GEO group needs to be burned to the ground. Why am I paying for them to flout the law?
Agreed, but… we need fire inspections to make sure the detainees are actually able to evacuate safely before we do so. That’s the problem.
https://www.latintimes.com/ice-opens-new-jersey-detention-center-earlier-expected-despite-legal-dispute-city-newark-582319
Thank you!
I’m fucking confused.