WHEREAS, the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders voted to renew a contract with
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 12, 2018 to house federal prisoners at
its Correctional facility;
WHEREAS, ICE has widely been denounced for inhumane policies that result in tearing
immigrant families apart. Thousands of parents have been separated from their children, many
of whom have yet to be reunited notwithstanding a judicial order directing that they be reunited;
WHEREAS, many of the immigrants detained at the ICE facilities are seeking refuge and asylum
from religious persecution, sexual violence, death threats, gang violence, and other threats to
their lives;
WHEREAS, Hudson County has a contract with ICE to house individuals who have been
detained by ICE;
WHEREAS, Hudson County did not provide the public with any meaningful open dialogue
about that contract before it was voted on, with Hudson County Freeholder Joel Torres himself
exclaiming that sufficient time was not provided to review the contract, and he requested that the
vote be tabled;
WHEREAS, the vote on the contract was placed on the agenda at the last minute, and it was
voted on at 1 pm at a weekday meeting when many members of the public were unable to attend;
WHEREAS, the Nonprofit advocacy group “Human Rights First” conducted visits to the Hudson
County Correctional facility and conducted hundreds of interviews with detainees, and it labeled
the Hudson County Correctional facility as “inhumane”;
WHEREAS, 35-year-old Long Island Resident Pablo Villavicencio, a father of two young
daughters ages 2 and 4, was detained for almost eight weeks in the Hudson County Correctional
facility;
WHEREAS, Mr. Villavicencio, a native of Ecuador, was held with five parents separated from
their children at the Mexican border, and lived in conditions with residuals of urine and feces,
and without air conditioning, according to the New York Daily News.
WHEREAS, over the course of less than one year, there have been six deaths (including four
suicides) at the Hudson County Correctional facility;
WHEREAS, Hoboken was declared a “fair and welcoming city” by Mayor Ravi Bhalla, which
was unanimously supported by the Hoboken City Council;
NOW BE IT THEREFORE that the Hoboken City Council urges the Hudson County Board of
Chosen Freeholders to immediate initiate the opt-out clause to terminate Hudson County’s

 contract with ICE related to housing individuals who have been detained by ICE at the Hudson
County Correctional facility located in Kearny, New Jersey.