The community is invited to join members of Bnai Keshet and other local faith and immigrant advocacy organizations at 7pm on July 25th at Livingston Township Hall, 357 S. Livingston Ave., to demand better conditions at the Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF).
This facility, which earns Essex County millions of dollars annually through an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract, failed an ICE inspection last year. The conditions described there were inhumane and unsafe. Most of the detainees are immigrants and refugees who have not been charged with crimes. (More info here: https://imm-print.com/report-details-deplorable-conditions-at-essex-correctional-facility/.)
Bnai Keshet rabbis, congregants and others will visit Joe DiVincenzo, the County Executive of Essex County, to lobby him, and attend an Essex County Freeholder’s meeting. The organizers have reached out to Freeholders and will ask for their responses to a series of demands during the public comments section of the July 25th meeting. They’ve requested that county Freeholders create a civilian oversight board, appoint a detainee advocate, provide universal legal representation for ICE detainees and plan a responsible transition out of the business of incarcerating immigrants:
Organizers ask the community to call or email Joe DiVincenzo’s office on July 25th to condemn Essex County Correctional Facility’s poor treatment of ICE detainees. To help them keep track of those who make contact, please check in here https://forms.gle/DJtQqYcfmuCK1opj9.