All nine Democratic members of the New Jersey House delegation — Reps. Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Analilia Mejia (NJ-11), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Robert Menendez (NJ-08), Nellie Pou (NJ-09), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Herb Conaway (NJ-03), and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) — today sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella demanding immediate answers and accountability following the third death connected to Delaney Hall Immigration Detention Facility in less than a year.

For months, Members of Congress, New Jersey officials, medical advocates, attorneys, and former detainees have documented disturbing allegations of abuse and neglect inside Delaney Hall: delayed emergency care, denied prescription medications, untreated chronic illness, infectious disease outbreaks, and inadequate care for medically vulnerable detainees. The delegation's June oversight visit was meant to determine whether these were isolated incidents or signs of a deeper, systemic failure. Instead of reform, the facility has now seen a third death in less than a year.

“Three deaths, repeated allegations of medical neglect, restricted oversight, and less public transparency are a terrible track record of care for individuals in your custody,” wrote the lawmakers. “At this point, the question is no longer whether ICE knows what is happening inside Delaney Hall. It is, ‘why does ICE continue to allow the GEO Group to put lives at risk?’”

The letter states ICE quietly rescinded a longstanding policy requiring public reporting and congressional notification when a person dies within 30 days of being released from ICE custody – a change the delegation says was a deliberate rollback of transparency that makes it easier to obscure the government's responsibility for deaths connected to time spent in federal custody. The letter also highlights that the State of New Jersey was forced to sue after its own health inspectors were repeatedly denied full access to Delaney Hall, even as ICE's own inspections identified multiple deficiencies in detainee care and safety.

The delegation is requesting, no later than August 12, 2026, that DHS and ICE:

• Provide a complete accounting of all three deaths connected to Delaney Hall since GEO Group assumed operations, including timelines, medical care provided, mortality reviews, and any corrective action taken
• Explain ICE's current policy on detainee death reporting, including when a death is no longer considered a death in ICE custody, and identify any deaths connected to Delaney Hall excluded from public reporting under that policy
• Produce all inspections, mortality reviews, audits, staffing assessments, corrective action plans, and internal communications concerning medical care at Delaney Hall since GEO Group assumed operations
• Describe every contractual, financial, or administrative action ICE has taken against GEO Group in response to repeated allegations of inadequate medical care and the three deaths connected to Delaney Hall
• Commit to granting members of Congress and New Jersey health officials full, unencumbered access to Delaney Hall, including housing units, medical facilities, records, surveillance footage, and relevant personnel

Click HERE to read the full letter text.