After years of struggle for immigrant justice by the North New Jersey Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, alongside many other individuals and organizations, we are relieved that New Jersey is finally getting ICE out of our communities: Hudson County has announced an end to their shameful collaboration with ICE. As the New Jersey County with the largest immigrant population, it is especially important that the Hudson County Commissioners finally stand with our diverse working class.

The end of ICE detention in Hudson County is the latest sign of the transformation that the immigrant justice movement has created in New Jersey’s relationship to ICE over the past year. It follows the passage of S3361/A5207—which bans new or renewed ICE detention contracts in the state—and Essex County ceasing detention of immigrants at ECCF. We hope to see confirmation soon that Hudson is ending their ICE contract, as County Executive Tom DeGise stated they will, and not just “depopulating” ICE detainees, leaving open the possibility to resume ICE detention as Essex County did.  

As democratic socialists, we know that racist border enforcement and immigration detention are weapons used to divide the working class. That’s why members of the North Jersey DSA have long participated in countless actions against Hudson County’s ICE collaboration. We are proud to belong to the coalition that pushed Hudson County to end its violent 287(g) partnership with ICE in 2018, and we joined the chorus of voices against their ICE contract renewal in 2018. We’ve organized against the ICE contract through numerous rallies at the jail, protesting outside of County Executive DeGise’s house, and speaking at dozens of freeholder meetings, one of which lasted over 9-hours. Between the dozens of immigrants detained by ICE who engaged in hunger strikes inside the Hudson County Detention Center and the many groups on the outside who worked to end the ICE contract in Hudson County, we are proud to have reached a point where one of the most diverse counties in the nation will be freer from the horrors of ICE detention.  

Now is the time for New Jersey to totally dismantle ICE’s carceral apparatus in the state, and to make amends for profiteering from ICE detention. In this moment of reflection on the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, it is imperative to remember that ICE is a product of the reactionary, racist, nativist, Islamophobic backlash that followed the exploitation of that tragedy’s memory in the fraudulent name of “national security.” Essex and Bergen counties must immediately end their ICE contracts, ensuring they can never again be tools of ICE detention. Elberon must shut down the sadistic for-profit CoreCivic-run ICE facility in Elizabeth. And most importantly, all state and local officials in New Jersey must call for immediate releases—not transfers—of those currently in ICE detention in New Jersey.

La lucha sigue! The fight continues, and North NJ DSA will be there in the struggle.