Just two days before the Elizabeth Detention Center was slated to close, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that it can stay open. It’s the last remaining immigrant detention facility in New Jersey.
Judge Robert Kirsch ruled that New Jersey’s law banning contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is unconstitutional, adding that if neighboring states were to pass a similar law it, “would result in nothing short of chaos.”
The decision comes after the Biden administration backed the lawsuit by the prison’s private operator CoreCivic to keep the facility open.
