NYC council committee with a hearing today banning SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. I’m at a ⁦⁦@NYCCOBA1⁩ press conference where union officials say punitive segregation is needed to keep correction officers safe. The poster is of C.O. injuries sustained in attacks by detainees. Keisha Williams, union VP, describes being sexually assaulted by an incarcerated person as a correction officer in 2016. “Punitive segregation has to remain at our city jails — without it, nonviolent inmates, correction officers & civilians will never be safe.”

Violent clash between ICE detainees & Bergen County (NJ) Corrections officers Monday. Detainee told me officers suddenly demanded they lock in during search for contraband, but detainees objected to being yelled at & several were assaulted, pepper-sprayed & put in the hole. 1/4 Spokeswoman @BergenCountySo confirmed "melee" after "detainees were observed passing contraband between units," which was found. Detainees refused lock-down. OC spray administered. 5 detainees put in "disciplinary lock" & charged with rioting. 2 officers injured. Statement: 2/4

Breaking: Yet another ICE detention facility may close in NJ. Today the owners of the former warehouse where @CoreCivic operates ICE's Elizabeth Detention Center sued CoreCivic to get out of the lease, alleging CoreCivic endangered detainees' lives by violating Covid rules. 1/ 51 detainees there have tested positive for Covid, plus several employees. There were 12 in just the last couple of weeks, despite the number of cases in NJ plummeting. Detainees have long complained about a lack of social distancing, soap, laundry services, cleaning supplies. 2/

Scoop: Essex County, NJ, is cancelling its long-standing and controversial contract to detain immigrants for ICE. It will move detainees out of its jail in Newark by August, ending what had become a political vulnerability for the all-Dem county board of commissioners. Story tk. .@SenatorMenendez had called these contracts -- which are still active in Bergen and Hudson counties -- "blood money." But Essex is not pulling out due to moral concerns. It says it is making up for the tens of millions in ICE revenue by housing prisoners from nearby Union County

Biden's ICE supposedly changed its priorities for deportation, with only recent arrivals, national security threats, and those convicted of aggravated felonies prioritized for removal. (ice.gov/doclib/news/re…)

So why is Mario Mateo of NJ being deported? A thread: 1/ Mateo has lived in the U.S. for 13 years. He has a U.S. citizen wife & 2 citizen children. He has never been convicted of a crime. He has had charges filed against him 3 times involving domestic disputes, but all were dismissed in municipal court, according to legal filings. 2/

Fake bomb from anti-ICE activists?

Dem County Executive @TomDeGise in Hudson County, NJ, who pushed ICE detention contract renewal last year, says he was sent a fake bomb in the mail. Commissioner Vainieri says it came from anti-ICE activists.

https://twitter.com/HeinisHardNews/status/1346186421137256448

@TomDeGise Vainieri also makes false claim about ICE detainees who county holds: "Every one of them came to our country illegally and then committed a violent crime here in America." But he attached list of detainee "charges" that includes immigration violations & other non-violent offenses

Dems in NJ feuding over whether 3 Dem counties should continue to jail immigrants for ICE thru big $ contracts. THREAD: Last month Dem Hudson County exec @TomDeGise & freeholders gave ICE a 10-year extension. Now @SenatorMenendez--a Hudson County Dem--calls that "blood money" 1/ .@CoryBooker had told me last year, thru a spox, that Dems should end contracts (gothamist.com/news/booker-nj…). But now he's getting more detailed, saying detention "perpetuate[s] dangerous & dehumanizing immigration enforcement," and NJ counties shouldn't "enter" contracts. 2/

Dems in Hudson County, NJ, are meeting NOW & appear ready to renew an ICE contract to detain immigrants for as long as 10 yrs. 75-plus people plan to speak, likely almost all against the contract. In 2018, same freeholders voted to end contract by 2020.1/ zoom.us/j/91553925879 Dem Executive @TomDeGise's spokesman said the county needs the money from the contract to balance its budget. But he could not provide any financial analysis. They're paid $120/day/immigrant by ICE, but it's unclear what the profit is. But even though money is stated reason...2/

Now: Hunger strike among ICE detainees at the Bergen County Jail in NJ. Began early this week. Some have resumed eating, says county sheriff, but 4 are under observation. ICE has force-fed hunger strikers in the past. They are refusing food because... 1/4 They were recently transferred, without explanation, from the Essex County jail in Newark. They said they weren't given all of their personal items, including legal papers. They say they're barely allowed out of their cells (county does this for social isolation due to Covid).2/4

Julio Colcas,55, Green Card holder who lived in NY-NJ for 40 yrs, had 2 old drug charges. ICE was detaining him in Newark but released him 6 months ago due to Covid. Then last week, ICE suddenly * re-arrested * him. Tonite he was apparently deported. And here's what's wild...1/9 Last Monday, he checked in with ICE -- as he has every month since his release. Last Wednesday, he said ICE called him & said there was something wrong with his ankle bracelet: Can you come in so we can swap it out? So he went to ICE's office in Newark, where he was cuffed.2/9

News: A popular Facebook page that trafficked in anti-Semitic stereotypes under the guise of concern about overdevelopment in Orthodox Jewish areas around Lakewood, NJ, is now down, after months of complaints by the @NewJerseyOAG. It was called Rise Up Ocean County. A thread --> Last April the state AG's office first wrote a letter to Facebook about the (very popular!) page, noting its menacing videos & the hateful comments under posts, like: “We need to get rid of them like Hitler did.” But Facebook apparently did nothing. nj.gov/oag/newsreleas…

I spent 6 weeks in Japan reporting on a thing that doesn’t get much attention: The thousands of asylum seekers from across the world who fly into Tokyo. Almost none win legal refugee status. Many get detained. And so I went to find out why, and what it means. #RefugeesInJapan 1/? This week, @WNYC & @Gothamist launch an audio series detailing what I learned. Japan’s immigration issues parallel those in the U.S., because this is a global phenomenon: We’re in an age of mass worldwide displacement, and the systems we have to deal with that are obsolete. 2/?

Scoop: Detainees at the largest immigrant lock-up in the New York region, the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, were held in their cells for days earlier this month as helmet-clad officers swept the facility for contraband, @WNYC has learned.
wnyc.org/story/immigran… Immigrants were allowed 10 minutes, twice each day to leave their cells and use the shower, phone and microwave, according to attorneys and detainees. County officials said this went on for 2 days for some. Detainees said it was 5 days. The impetus? Unspecified security threat.

News: Essex County Jail in NJ, which has a $34 million contract with ICE to detain 800 immigrants, is the focus of a scathing ICE Inspector General report
that says there are "significant threats to detainee health and safety,” like a LOADED GUN that a detainee found & moldy food Here's some slimy, discolored lunch meat and what the inspectors described as a "foul-smelling and unrecognizable" hamburger patty. When I first saw the picture I thought it was burnt toast. This is from a surprise visit last July.

I just finished reading "LET ME FINISH" by Chris Christie. I think "I TOLD YOU SO, IDIOTS" would have been a more apt title, but he didn't ask me for my suggestion...I have some other thoughts on the book--hear me talk about it on @WNYC this am, or follow along with this thread-> He goes AFTER Jared Kushner, whom he emasculates with descriptions like his "soft quiver" voice, and whom he blames for not getting AG or VP. Kushner also fired Christie as chair of the transition, which Christie repeatedly blames for everything that has gone wrong with Trump.

ICE & the long, meandering history of American immigration policy is the focus of today's episode of @TheTakeaway, which I had the privilege of hosting. You can listen to it right now -- wnycstudios.org/story/podcast-… -- but here's a thread breaking out all the segments...1/6 Bergen County, NJ, residents should listen to this one: Erik Jurek has been held at the Bergen Jail for a visa violation for a year without arguing his case b4 a judge. He complained about jail conditions: Negligent medical care & lack of basics like seats, jackets, razors. 2/6

THREAD: Since I published a secret recording last week of the Bergen County Sheriff going on a racist rant I've fielded several tips about shocking remarks made by public officials in Bergen County, NJ. In this thread I'll highlight two that recently aired in public meetings.1/7 "I'd like to kill her, but I can't do that. I look at the 'Shawshank Redemption' and say, 'Hmmm.'" - Englewood Cliffs Police Chief Michael Cioffi on Englewood Cliffs Council President Carrol McMorrow. 2/7

An Albanian woman is on tarmac at Newark Airport right now on verge of deportation. She was detained in April after she allegedly interfered with officials as they deported her husband. Her son remains in detention in N.J. Her 10-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, now parentless. Here's the back story on her arrest that led to her deportation. (northjersey.com/story/news/new…) She said she was just trying to hug her husband goodbye. They had lived here 17 years. After he was deported back to Albania, he said he was beaten by armed men. He's a Christian minority.