300 ICE Prisoners Send Urgent SOS Letter: "We Are Being Tortured"

"We are being tortured physically and psychologically; deaf, mute, blind, elderly persons, and pregnant women...are not receiving proper medical attention," Delaney Hall ICE prisoners write

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The crisis inside New Jersey’s Delaney Hall ICE prison is spiraling out of control as nearly 300 male and female prisoners signed an urgent SOS letter begging for help over physical and psychological abuse, starvation, rampant due process violations, and more.

As Status Coup has reported on the ground outside the Newark, New Jersey prison, which is owned by for-profit prison Goliath GEO Group, prisoners are growing sick inside while losing an alarming amount of weight.

“We feel vulnerable and, in a way, kidnapped—detained without justification—not to mention that we are being tortured physically and psychologically due to the poor food resources provided in these detention centers,” the letter from prisoners stated.

These decrepit food resources include being served rotting and expired food—and an insufficient amount at that

FYI: Geo Group raked in 254.4 million in profit in 2025—a staggering 695 percentage increase in profit compared to 2024 (thanks to landing ICE prison contracts under the Trump regime).

“The food there is horrible,” Gabriela Soto, the wife of prisoner Martin, told Status Coup, explaining that her husband has lost 30 points inside Delaney Hall in just four months. “They don’t feed them at all…they get sick, they start throwing up, they have headaches—it’s really bad in there.”

Delaney Hall ICE Prison May 2, 2026

Prisoners are routinely being deprived of their medications, not receiving ample outdoor recreation time, and being kept awake all night by guards and noise.

In the letter, prisoners also reveal the rampant spread of COVID-19 and flu inside the prison, which could “lead to outbreaks of illnesses or epidemics.”

Beyond the threat of spreading COVID and/or flu to loved ones who visit prisoners, many of the ICE prisoners are immunocompromised or disabled—making the untamed spread of diseases an extra threat.

From the letter:

“It is public knowledge that agents have arrested individuals with physical limitations such as: deaf, mute, blind individuals, elderly persons, and even pregnant women. We find individuals from the LGBTQ+ community with diagnoses of illnesses such as HIV. cancer, diabetes, heart problems, among others, who are not receiving proper medical attention for the aforementioned conditions.”

In the letter, prisoners noted that their constitutional rights are being violated.

“We see with deep helplessness and frustration that our due process, rights, and defense have been violated, disregarding benefits granted under the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments of the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION"

Despite the abuse they’re enduring at the hands of the Trump regime, the SOS signees still managed to ask for forgiveness for their supposed crimes—the misdemeanor infraction of entering the U.S. without documentation (as they fled their own countries to save the lives of their children).

“Initially, we ask for forgiveness for the way we entered the United States, but given the circumstances we were living in our countries, which placed our lives and those of some members of our families in danger.”

Loved ones of prisoners inside, and activists who gather in solidarity outside on a near daily basis, are calling for the New Jersey politicians to hold GEO Group accountable for the torturous conditions inside. Specially, they are demanding:

• Funding universal legal representation for individuals detained at Delaney Hall

• Mobilizing emergency state resources to support impacted families

• Conducting regular oversight visits and publicly releasing detailed reports of all legislative and official visits to Delaney Hall

• Taking immediate action to address medical neglect, unsafe conditions, and due process violations.

[WATCH MY ON-THE-GROUND REPORT OUTSIDE DELANY HALL ICE PRISON]