Elizabeth Detention Center: Past, Present, and Future

Bridging perspectives from formerly detained community members, grassroots organizers, academics, and policy experts, Rutgers University-New Brunswick's Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies, in collaboration with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), First Friends of NJ and NY, and Detention Watch Network, will host a full day symposium on the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC) on October 27.

In late August, despite weeks of sustained community pressure, a federal judge in Trenton and the Biden administration allowed private prison corporation CoreCivic to circumvent NJ state law and renew their detention contract with ICE for Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC) until February 2024.

Like all immigration detention centers, the EDC has a well-documented history of abuse and neglect, and communities across New Jersey have been fighting to shut it down for decades. Join us for a day of sustained discussion on the past, present, and future of EDC and of immigration detention in the United States.