Bergen County will collect $12M for housing immigrant detainees

Steve Janoski | NorthJersey

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Bergen County will collect at least $12-million to house immigrant detainees at its Hackensack jail

County officials say the detainees are taken care of at the jail

But immigrant advocates say the ICE program makes Bergen complicit in the federal agency's policies

As the debate over immigration policy roils the nation, at least one winner has emerged: Bergen County, which is set to make more money this year from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement than ever before.

The county has already collected more than half of the $12 million it expects this year from the federal agency in return for housing at its jail immigrant detainees arrested in connection with a variety of misdeeds. The money, which could fund more than 15 percent of the Sheriff’s Office’s $80 million budget, has flooded county coffers and helped lessen residents’ tax burden. It will also fund essential programs and improve public safety, a county spokeswoman said.

But there is some irony that Bergen County, whose voters have planted Democrats in every constitutional office, is benefiting so heavily from an agreement that pays it to do exactly what Democrats across the country are protesting so savagely. Still, in interviews, county officials painted the deal as a portrait of pragmatism: Whether they like ICE’s policy or not, detainees must go somewhere, they said. And at least Bergen County will take care of them.

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“I’m not an elected official that can make laws, pass ordinances — I’m the guy that enforces what’s on the books,” said Michael Saudino, the county’s Democratic sheriff. “But if they’re not at my jail, I know they’re going to be somewhere else. I take great pride in knowing they’re in the best possible facility they could be.”

But not everyone buys that. Especially skeptical is Tara Tidwell Cullen, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center, who said she’s heard that line from many local governments.

“It’s still a jail. It’s still a prison,” Cullen said. "If you're getting money to put people in jail who don't belong in jail, yeah, you're complicit."

An ICE representative did not respond to a request for comment.

The explosion in the number of detainees Bergen County houses is peaking just as the national maelstrom surrounding immigration reaches its zenith. The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy, which criminally prosecutes anyone caught crossing the border illegally, has led to the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents and angered lawmakers from both parties.

Although Trump has since walked back the policy — or at least the part that pulls apart families — his administration has said it will rigorously enforce immigration laws and initiate proceedings accordingly.

Activists mount pressure

The troubles have bled down to New Jersey, where activists have been pressuring some counties to abandon their federal agreements.

Essex County sheriff's officers on Friday arrested eight protesters who were calling on that county to end its participation in a similar contract that lets the Essex County Correctional Facility hold ICE detainees.

And in March, Hudson County backed out of a controversial program that trained corrections officers to discern the immigration status of inmates and flag those held for serious offenses for possible deportation.

Jim Tedesco, the Bergen County executive, called Trump’s policies “disgraceful and un-American.” And he said the public should not see the sheriff’s contract as an endorsement.

Tedesco, a Democrat running for reelection this fall, lauded the Hackensack jail’s conditions, and he said those held there have the best of conditions, under the circumstances.

“Everyone should be treated with compassion and care,” Tedesco said. “And I believe that’s what they get.”

Others are more suspicious of the county’s motives.

“They see this as something that is very profitable — money that’s kind of easy to get,” said Rosa Santana, a program coordinator for First Friends of New Jersey and New York, which sends volunteers to visit immigration detainees. “So they’ll continue to do this.”

It is unclear how Democratic Party leaders feel about such programs.

When questioned, a spokesman for Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that Murphy "believes that New Jersey must not partake in the wrongful targeting of immigrants by the federal government.”

But he did not delve into specifics.

How many detainees are housed?

Bergen County is housing an average of 373 detainees every day at its jail, the Sheriff’s Office said. That’s far higher than last year’s average of 263, and more than double 2013’s average of 152.

It also means detainees now make up well over half the jail’s average daily population of 716 inmates.

The swelling numbers mean more money for the county, whose contract with the U.S. Marshals Service calls on ICE to pay a $110 nightly rate for each man or woman held.

As a result, Bergen has collected from ICE more than $42 million in the last eight years. This includes an $8.8 million chunk in 2017.

The jail, which does not hold children, is regularly inspected by a variety of outside groups, Saudino said. And though a 2016 report from the federal Office of Detention Oversight found a number of faults, it also said none of the 25 interviewed detainees alleged any mistreatment, abuse, or discrimination. And the jail has since addressed ICE’s concerns, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The exact backgrounds of Bergen’s detainees remain somewhat opaque.

All detainees held by Bergen County are sent to the jail by ICE’s New York office, Saudino said. But that doesn’t mean they’re all New York residents — some are shuffled there if other facilities are full, Saudino said, which means Bergen may also house immigrants arrested at the border.

Some are hardened criminals, and more than half of the 430 detainees held as of Friday have serious charges against them, Saudino said.

Others have been picked up for lesser indiscretions, like traffic or drug offenses, advocacy groups say.

At least a few have committed no crime aside from crossing the border without documentation. This includes an asylum seeker who entered the county as an “unaccompanied minor child” with her 2-year-old son, said Sally Pillay, program director for First Friends.

When the woman turned 18, ICE separated the two and sent her to Bergen County, Pillay said.

The woman has since been released and reunited with her son. “They tend to move people around based on the availability of bed space,” Pillay said.

The Sheriff’s Office has no say in which detainees it receives, Saudino said.

“We don’t ask, ‘Can we only have these, and not those,’ ” Saudino said. “Whoever they bring to us is who we have.”

Pillay said First Friends is planning to visit the jail sometime in the next few months to interview detainees and check conditions for itself.

“What we tend to find with all the facilities — not just Bergen — is that when we go in, they paint a very rosy picture,” Pillay said. “But when you talk with the individuals … it’s a very different story.”

Email: janoski@northjersey.com