As announced in a letter from the Department of Defense, the Trump administration plans to use Fort Dix, the U.S. Army post that is part of the tri-service Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, to detain immigrants. The South Jersey military base will hold up to 3,000 beds for use by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
With this expansion to Fort Dix, New Jersey continues to be an epicenter of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Earlier this year, Delaney Hall, the largest detention facility on the East Coast, opened in Newark, which already multiplied the detention capacity in New Jersey four times over.
The Trump administration’s mass detention apparatus is unprecedented, and employing military resources to detain noncitizens is not normal. The government is pouring money into incarcerating our neighbors, with the most recent federal budget bill funneling $75 billion to ICE for enforcement and detention, often lining the pockets of private prison executives at the expense of humanity, equality, and decency. We can – and must – work to end the criminalization of the immigration system and the mass detention of immigrant communities.
Turning military bases into massive tent detention sites is not only unnecessary and costly; it’s another dehumanizing spectacle designed to intimidate all of us and deprive those detained of their rights. And it diverts important resources needed for military readiness.
It has been widely documented by Congress, oversight agencies, physicians, journalists, advocates, and whistleblowers that the immigration detention system is rife with abuse, dangerous conditions, and medical neglect. And studies have shown that community-based alternatives to detention save taxpayers money and yield better results when it comes to appearing in court. Because Fort Dix is a military base, its operating methods are likely to make the frightening reality of immigration detention in New Jersey even worse.
Our leaders must hold the Trump administration accountable: the ACLU of New Jersey calls on members of Congress to speak out against the inhumane use of military bases as immigration detention centers and to exercise their oversight authority at any such facilities.
Expanding immigration detention to military facilities sets a dangerous precedent for coopting military resources for internal law enforcement and is contrary to everything our nation was created to represent. As the Trump administration’s extreme immigration agenda continues to threaten our communities, the ACLU-NJ will continue to dedicate ourselves to defending the fundamental freedoms of our democracy for all.
