Yesterday evening I joined a group of volunteers outside Delaney Hall, the for profit immigrant detention center located in an industrial area in Newark, New Jersey. We provided support to families visiting their detained loved ones on this national holiday.

There was the mother bringing her 2 day old to meet the child’s father for the very first time. Yes 2 days after giving birth! Such a tiny baby.

There were the elementary school age kids whose eyes lit up when I showed them a selection of donated Hot Wheels cars, still in the packaging, and said they could choose which one they wanted to take home.

There was the teenager who didn’t want to leave home on a cold Thanksgiving night and the Mom who made him come so he could see his Dad on this family holiday.

There was the family in tears as they were turned away by the guard because he decided (arbitrarily) that they didn’t arrive early enough, even though they were there half an hour before the assigned visiting hour for their loved one’s unit.

There were many others. Otherwise ordinary families forced by our unjust immigration system to stand on an active driveway at night in the cold in order to see their loved one.

It felt wrong somehow to wish them Happy Thanksgiving. But they wished us Happy Thanksgiving as we passed out slices of pizza and  plastic red cups filled with pasta, warm food to feed their bodies and help them stay warm. They thanked us as we handed out blankets, hats, gloves, and scarves for them to use while they waited outside the gates for up to an hour in order to ensure the guard put them on the list of allowed visitors for their loved one’s unit.

GEO Group runs this immigration prison on a 15 year $1Billion tax payer funded contract.  Their CEO told shareholders on an earnings call that they expect to earn a $60 million profit this year alone detaining migrants at Delaney Hall.

Yet they choose not to use those profits to provide an indoor waiting area for families visiting loved ones. They recently installed a metal shed with no walls or heat on the active driveway and filled it with cold metal benches. This is insufficient and provides no safety or real shelter from the elements as we move into winter.

Federal Holidays are supposed to be full visiting days and follow the weekend daytime schedule. In fact the guards announced to visitors last weekend that Thanksgiving Day and the Day after would be all day visiting with one hour visits for each unit. Then on Tuesday a sign was posted that Thanksgiving would follow the regular Thursday evening schedule. No mention of Friday. That meant having to wait outside in the dark for a half hour visit. We wondered if they were understaffed on the holiday. In any case it led to confusion and hardship for the families.

One family I have gotten to know did not have to wait outside this Thanksgiving. After four months of detention because of his irregular status, their loved one finally was released on bond the night before Thanksgiving. His wife wrote me:

“Yes, he was set free last night!!! 🙌 We barely slept last night because we were so happy and relieved. It is so nice having him here and seeing how he is experiencing everything new again. Praise the Lord on this Day of Thanksgiving for all His wonderful blessings and how He heard months of cry’s and prayers and gave us our hearts desire.”

They now face an uphill battle with the courts, but they are reunited and he is safe. He lost a lot of weight in detention due to the conditions and the quality of food provided.

Please pray for all those in detention, 1,000 at Delaney Hall and more than 60,000 nationwide. Pray for their families. Advocate for them to receive due process and humane treatment. We cannot be silent.

(Photo borrowed from Instagram of another volunteer @christinehou. I am not in the photo as it was taken after I left a little early because my feet were so cold!)