This report highlights the conditions of confinement faced by immigration detainees in county jails across the state of New Jersey and attempts to shed light on the conditions immigrant detainees are forced to endure. This report presents a snapshot of conditions to which immigrant detainees in New Jersey are subject.
The ACLU-NJ compiled information for this report through individual interviews over a four-month period with detainees and letters from detainees who had either overstayed a visa or entered the country without inspection and were apprehended by local law enforcement or immigration officials. Some were lawful permanent residents with previous criminal convictions for which they had already served their sentences or paid fines, but these criminal convictions stripped them of their lawful immigration status and made them deportable.