Assemblyman Danielsen also wants severed ties from the GEO Group

In a letter he sent today to Governor Mikie Sherrill, Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-17) said he wants New Jersey to immediately divest state pension funds from a private pension contractor that operates a controversial immigrant detention center in Newark.

Danielsen also said he wants a disclosure of how and when the state made the decision to reinvest in the GEO Group after Governor Phil Murphy announced a divestment in 2018, and a full report on state pension investments.

"It has come to my attention that state pension funds totaling about $800k are invested in the GEO Group," Danielsen wrote to Sherrill. "This private pension contractor operates the ICE Detention Center at Delaney Hall. This is despite a 2018 pledge by the preceding admin to divest from GEO."

Danielsen cited the appalling conditions at Delaney Hall, where agents arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka last year on May 5th. The Justice Department subsequently brought charges against U.S. Rep. Lamonica McIver (D-10), who accompanied Baraka that day on a fact-finding mission to Delaney Hall.

"This is unacceptable," Danielsen told InsiderNJ. "This is our pension money that is being investing in a company at the core of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in New Jersey, that is violating constitutional rights here and helping ICE further the violation of rights.

The Assemblyman, chair of the Public Safety and Preparedness Committee, specifically cited ICE's impairment of McIver and his own congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12), in their statutory rights and obligations to inspect Delaney Hall.

"How can we take our money and invest there?" he wanted to know. "How we invest says a lot about us, and this is an insult to my good senses. I hope I get a positive response from the governor on this i want to make sure it stops."

In his letter to Sherrill, the Assemblyman from Somerset County notes that "our residents overwhelmingly reject ICE and their tactics."