Last Immigrants Detained In Bergen County, NJ Urge ICE, Lawmakers For Release

The last remaining immigrant detainees in a New Jersey jail are urging lawmakers to intervene to keep them in the state and prevent them from being transferred to facilities across the U.S.

There are just 20 remaining federal detainees inside the Bergen County jail. It's the last county in New Jersey to end its agreement with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But those inside say they don't want to be transferred to other states, far from their families and lawyers. Detainees aren't criminally charged, but are held to make they show up for immigration hearings. Detainee Patrick Julney says he should be given an alternative to detention.

"People don't know what's going to happen and a lot of us are being taken away from our families, no visits, it's crazy. A lot of people are unstable right now," he said. "Give me four bracelets, one on each limb, just let me go work."

Julney and others sent a letter to New Jersey's U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez urging them to press ICE to let them go. An ICE spokesman said transfers are handled on a case by case basis. 

Immigrant advocates have pushed for years to end the lucrative county contracts with ICE. Essex and Hudson counties ended their agreements with the federal government to jail immigration detainees earlier this year.