Immigrant Detention

Published in Documented NY
in collaboration with First Friends of NY & NJ
Venture down the cratered truck routes of an industrial wasteland off the New Jersey Turnpike—where smokestacks rise from concrete plains, airplanes skim power lines, and workers stare from rest-stop diners. Not far from here, a young woman walks through Terminal A. Her head is high, her cotton dress bold. In one hand, a passport from Burkina Faso. In the other, documents for asylum. She approaches border control and quietly asks for protection from domestic violence. She does not yet know she may be questioned for hours without a translator, coerced into signing away her rights, and sent to a remote detention facility. That she may owe thousands in legal fees, wait months as her case stalls, and miss family milestones. That calling home will be near impossible. That detention centers are privately owned, contracted to keep 34,000 beds filled. That companies like CCA and GEO profit off her imprisonment, backed by banks and universities. That she may not see the sky again for months, or even years. A small red sign marks the Corrections Corporation of America’s detention center in Elizabeth, NJ, which holds over 300 detainees. Nearby, GEO’s Delaney Hall stood beside a prison and a power plant before closing in 2016. Each year, over 400,000 people, documented and undocumented, are pulled into the American immigrant detention system.