JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Today, Congressman Rob Menendez joined Senator Cory Booker as he announced the reintroduction of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act alongside U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver and New Jersey immigrant rights advocates. The bill, which Rep. Menendez cosponsors in the House, would end the use of private, for-profit detention facilities, prohibit the practice of detaining families, and ensure due process. It would also repeal mandatory detention and increase federal oversight, accountability, and transparency of the immigration detention system. Ahead of the bill’s announcement, the Members of Congress toured Delaney Hall.
“What we continue to see at Delaney Hall and in immigration detention centers across the country is a betrayal of the American Dream,” said Congressman Rob Menendez. “I was proud to be an original cosponsor for the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act in the House, and I’m proud to stand with Senator Booker today as he reintroduces this critical legislation. This legislation will phase out the use of private detention centers and hold currently open facilities accountable for unsafe conditions. I will continue to fight for dignity, accountability, and the ultimate closure of these detention centers.”
“Delaney Hall, and every detention center like it, are a moral stain on our country. The conditions are an abdication of the federal government’s responsibility to care for those in its custody. GEO Group was awarded a 15-year, one billion dollar contract by the Department of Homeland Security to warehouse our immigrant neighbors,” said Senator Booker. “As taxpayers, we’re footing the bill for a system that is brutalizing those detained within it. Enough is enough. With the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, we can move away from this system of neglect and cruelty. We can strike a blow against the corrupt for-profit prison model of incarceration. We can guarantee due process for our immigrant neighbors and ban mandatory detentions. Doing this will safeguard our communities and it will bring us steps closer to achieving an immigration system built on dignity and justice that we know is possible.”
“We keep coming back to Delaney because what we are seeing from ICE is unjust,” said Congresswoman LaMonica McIver. “Last month, a man detained at Delaney Hall died in ICE custody. Nationwide, our neighbors are being targeted by Trump’s inhumane DHS, detained without any process, denied their basic rights, even killed—all under a system designed to avoid accountability. As an original cosponsor of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act in the House, I’m proud Senator Booker is reintroducing the Senate companion today. Trump brought this fight into our backyard and he wants to intimidate us, but we will never back down in our communities or in the halls of Congress. With all we have, we will continue standing up to protect people.”
“Under the Trump Administration, we have seen a shocking surge in the detention of people who have committed no crimes, being locked up in increasingly horrifying conditions, and a dramatic increase in deaths in custody,” said Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. “People, including children, are being held in squalor, largely in private, for-profit detention facilities, all to pad the bottom lines of prison corporations that donate to Donald Trump and Republicans. As Trump has struck down legal pathways and made it nearly impossible to come to or stay in this country, even for those who have been here for decades, this will only continue to get worse. The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is a commonsense solution to protect the civil rights of every person in this country.”
“We are witnessing appalling conditions for immigration detention and a clear disregard for basic human rights,” said Congressman Adam Smith. “No one should be subjected to overcrowded cells, denied medical care, or held in facilities that profit off of human suffering. This legislation establishes the oversight and guardrails needed to end these abuses and ensure that people are treated with dignity.”
“We’re grateful for Sen. Booker’s leadership in introducing the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act. With each day under the Trump administration, it becomes clearer that ICE is a lawless, rogue agency designed to violently detain and deport people while imposing harm and cruelty. This mass detention system cannot be reformed – it is antithetical to basic human decency, the rule of law, and the spirit of our nation’s founding. We’re calling for the swift passage of this bill as it prioritizes the dignity of all people and offers an important step toward ending the cruel mass detention and deportation machine once and for all,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha.
“This bill is called Dignity for Detained Immigrants, but we know there is no such thing under this current administration. Every day there are reports of human rights violations at the hands of ICE. Toddlers are dying in private immigration jails without access to basic medical care,” said Nedia Morsy, Director of Make the Road New Jersey. “We will organize to pass this bill so that one day we can look back and tell the story of how this legislation was the first step to dismantle a brutal system that has caused immeasurable pain and suffering across our country. In this country, presidents come and go but immigrants are here to stay. We thank Senator Booker for introducing this bill and are ready to stand with him to get it passed.”
The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is proudly endorsed by a nationwide coalition of over 125 organizations. Its current cosponsors in the U.S. Senate include Senators Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Alex Padilla (D-CA). The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in late 2025 by Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07) and Adam Smith (D-WA-09).
Additional Information: Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act
The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would bring much-needed justice and oversight to the immigration detention system. The legislation would:
Prohibit the detention of families and children in family detention;
Phase out the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period;
Repeal mandatory detention and replace it with a system that requires DHS to present evidence that the people in its detention centers are a threat to public safety or national security;
Require DHS to establish civil detention standards that provide, at minimum, the level of protection in the American Bar Association’s Civil Immigration Detention Standards;
Mandate the Inspector General of DHS to conduct unannounced inspections with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards; and
End the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention.
Earlier this month, Congressman Menendez called on DHS to halt reported plans to open a detention center in a warehouse in Roxbury, NJ. Last year, in response to reports that the Trump Administration was planning to expand immigration detention in New Jersey, Menendez led bicameral members of the New Jersey congressional delegation in opposing this expansion and demanding transparency. Since being sworn into Congress in 2023, he has repeatedly called for the closure of all immigrant detention centers in New Jersey and has conducted several unannounced visits of Delaney Hall and the Elizabeth Detention Center. He has long advocated for the humane and dignified treatment of individuals in detention.
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