Holding vigil at Delaney Hall for those in detention and their families

Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Kathy O’Leary, coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey, has been deeply involved with an ongoing presence outside Delaney Hall, the massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark, NJ. For months now, Pax Christi New Jersey and other organizations have provided physical, emotional, and spiritual support to family members who wait outside the center for an opportunity to visit with loved ones being held inside. The following is an update from Kathy:

On a positive note, “GEO Group [the private corporation that owns Delaney Hall] has extended visiting hours … to Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-9 PM so we have volunteers outside starting at 3:30 PM [including those who serve as marshals].” Unfortunately, the amount of time for visits has gone from one hour down to as little as 10 minutes.

Pax Christi New Jersey will be working with region 3 of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) on an event outside Delaney Hall for the One Church One Family Catholic Public Witness for Immigrants on October 22. 

“Catholic churches and houses of worship from various denominations and faith traditions from northern New Jersey and New York City continue to reach out to ask how they can become involved. 

“I am also happy to report that since we started the Let Us Pray prayer service in August, the Archdiocese of Newark has been granted access to Delaney Hall. Fr. Alex Gaitan was in the facility this past Sunday [September 14] with the intent to offer a mass, but his plan was derailed by the prisoner counts. However, he was successful in offering confessions this past Tuesday and he hopes to offer a mass this Saturday.

>>Outside Newark’s 1,100-bed detention center, a weekly prayer service for anxious families, Religion News Service, August 25, 2025

“On September 14, representatives from the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the Episcopal Diocese of Newark offered a eucharistic service outside Delaney Hall.

“At [the September 21] prayer service outside Delaney Hall, we will have Dr. Wendsler Nosie, former chairman of San Carlos Apache Nation and current leader at Apache Stronghold as our guest. He will speak a little about the struggle to save the sacred land of Oak Flat from a mining operation. On September 28 a group of United Church of Christ clergy will be coming to offer prayers. We hope to have a group from two local synagogues take a turn offering prayers soon as well as a Catholic mass. 

“Prior to the initiation of the weekly prayer service we were blessed with the presence of a group from the Grafton Peace Pagoda. 

“We continue to look for more opportunities to host musicians and artists. A local performer Gabi the Artist has been with us several times and recently Lu Aya from The Peace Poets stopped by and led visitors and volunteers in song. 

“We are also continuing to offer grocery store gift cards. Through the generosity of the community we have between $2000 and $5000 worth of gift cards to distribute each week to families with a breadwinner inside Delaney Hall. This Saturday we have a donor supplying boxes of fresh produce and another supplying pre-assembled pantry bags, diapers and wipes.”

Kathy reports that the area in the driveway where visitors are required to sit for hours has become much more dangerous with more gates in use and more vans, buses and cars coming in and out. The reduced visibility during the evening visiting hours add to the danger for visitors particularly the very young children. 

Also, retaliation against visitors and people in detention seems to be increasing, including the use of solitary confinement. She notes that very few legislators have visited Delaney Hall; fewer have met with volunteers and visitors.

Photos by Tom Lynch. Click here to see his gallery of photos from Delaney Hall on Instagram.

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Resources for providing support to those in detention and their families:

• A list of ICE facilities. It sometimes takes a few weeks to update when a new facility is added, but it shows about 120 facilities in over 30 states. You can filter by state. 
• The most recent data from TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) shows about 200 facilities. This list can also be filtered by state. 
• Freedom for Immigrants has a guide for visiting people in ICE detention.
• Penpal programs in the following states:
  • Minnesota- Conversations with Friends
  • New Jersey/New York- First Friends
  • New Mexico – VIDA
  • Washington- AIDNW