"On the Friday before Mother's Day, LaMonica McIver, a first-term Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, spent the morning handing out roses in the maternity ward of a hospital in Newark. Her next stop, a visit to Delaney Hall, a federal immigration jail in her district, promised to be a more sombre affair, but she was "on a high note," McIver told me. "We thought it would be a smooth day.""
"A few months earlier, when they had visited another New Jersey immigration jail, in Elizabeth, a guard wouldn't admit them. Watson Coleman, who is eighty and in her sixth term, produced a copy of the federal statute that authorized their visit. Twenty minutes later, the warden and a representative from Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed them around. At Delaney Hall, McIver recalled, "I just thought we would go in and have a little delay.""
LaMonica McIver, a first-term Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, visited Delaney Hall, a federal immigration jail in her district, shortly after handing out roses in a hospital maternity ward. She toured the facility with two other New Jersey Democrats and planned a press conference after the visit. Members of Congress are permitted unannounced inspections of detention centers, with rules barring staff accompaniment and cellphones. A previous attempt to visit another facility encountered resistance until a lawmaker produced the statute authorizing the visit. Delaney Hall is operated by the GEO Group and opened during Donald Trump’s second term.
Read at The New Yorker
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