Court: New Jersey Can't Ban Private Prisons From Detaining Immigrants

Forbes

4 days ago

A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a New Jersey law that banned detaining immigrants in for-profit facilities. The ruling by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals hands a major victory to private prison firm CoreCivic, which has run an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey since 1996. Given its close proximity to Newark Liberty International Airport, the center has played a pivotal role in housing immigrants awaiting deportation, and has held more than 2,000 immigration detainees in recent years.
Although the federal government could directly own and operate its own immigration detention centers, it has instead largely outsourced that function to private companies like CoreCivic. According to an analysis by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, as of January 2025, '86 percent of ICE detainees were held in facilities run by for-profit entities.'
However, many of those detained in private prisons have never been convicted of a crime. A report by the New Jersey Globe found that 77% of the detainees at the Elizabeth Detention Center were designated as 'non-criminal.' Nationwide, 84% of ICE detainees lacked a criminal record and were classified as having 'no ICE threat level,' according to data obtained by the Associated Press.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES - MAY 6: Protesters demonstrated against immigration and customs ... More enforcement outside as Mayor Ras J. Baraka, City officials, including leadership and personnel from the Departments of Engineering, Law, Health and Community Wellness, Fire Division and Office of Uniform Construction Code (UCC) held a press conference in Newark, New Jersey, United States on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The City of Newark says that they have evidence of women and possibly children being detained at the facility. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Citing a need 'to ensure respect for the human rights and civil rights of all people detained within New Jersey,' in 2021, the state legislature passed a law that banned private companies as well as state and local government agencies from entering into, extending, or renewing any agreement to 'house or detain individuals for civil immigration violations.'
CoreCivic sued, claiming New Jersey's law infringed on the Supremacy Clause, which declares that federal law 'shall be the supreme law of the land.' The company's legal challenge quickly earned the backing of the U.S. Department of Justice, first under the Biden Administration and continuing under the second Trump Administration. Closing the 'mission critical' Elizabeth Detention Center, the federal government warned, would 'cripple [ICE's] law-enforcement operations in New Jersey and the surrounding region.'
In 2023, a federal district court sided with CoreCivic, a ruling that was upheld on Tuesday by the Third Circuit. Writing for a 2-1 majority, Judge Stephanos Bibas asserted that New Jersey's law 'interferes with the federal government's core power to enforce immigration laws.'
'Only the federal government has the power to decide whether, how, and why to hold aliens for violating immigration law,' Bibas added. 'It alone has the power to make these contracts in the first place.'
Judge Thomas Ambro dissented. Although he shared 'the majority's discomfort with allowing New Jersey to affect federal immigration detention,' the court's ruling nevertheless 'undermines bedrock federalism and separation-of-powers principles.'
CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin said the company was 'grateful' for the Third Circuit's decision. He further stated that 'CoreCivic does not enforce immigration laws, arrest anyone who may be in violation of immigration laws, or have any say whatsoever in an individual's deportation or release. CoreCivic also does not know the circumstances of individuals when they are placed in our facilities. Our responsibility is to care for each person respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process that they are entitled to.'
'What New Jersey achieved through the democratic process has now been undone by judicial fiat to the corporations whose mission is not to serve the United States Constitution, but to deliver profits for their shareholders,' said New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice Executive Director Amy Torres. The Alliance filed an amicus brief for the case, alongside the ACLU of New Jersey and more than two dozen community organizations.
The Third Circuit's ruling widens a split among federal appellate courts. In 2022, the Ninth Circuit struck down a California law that similarly banned 'privately owned and operated detention facilities.' 'To comply with California law,' Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote for the Ninth Circuit en banc majority, 'ICE would have to cease its ongoing immigration detention operations in California and adopt an entirely new approach.'
But that same year, the Seventh Circuit upheld an Illinois law that prohibited state and local agencies from contracting with the federal government to hold immigration detainees in their jails—contracts that generated between $4 to 8 million each year. Since the law built off of an earlier reform that banned private prisons from entering such contracts, the Seventh Circuit's decision effectively ended immigration detention in Illinois.
In a statement, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin was 'disappointed' in the Third Circuit's decision and said the state was considering its next steps. 'As recent events at Delaney Hall underscore, entrusting detention to for-profit companies poses grave risks to health and safety,' Platkin added.