NEWARK — They walked past Newark's Penn Station, under the New Jersey Turnpike and within sight of Newark Liberty International Airport.
After 90 minutes, they ended up at the Essex County Correctional Facility, which is where they wanted to be.
Demonstrating against a proposal to build another 2,700 beds to house federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the facility, about 60 people walked from the agency’s Newark offices on Broad Street to the jail on Doremus Avenue.
A few wore orange prison jumpsuits. Several held American flags. Nearly all sang and chanted along the 3.5-mile route. Many displayed banners, placards and buttons. "No human being is illegal," read one. "Immigrant Rights = Human Rights," another read.
Seth Kaper-Dale, pastor at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, said the project is local one, but it is the Obama administration that is perpetuating what he called a thoughtless policy.
"This whole system destroys people," said Kaper-Dale, and advocate of immigrants’ rights, saying that outright deportation affects not just individuals but often breaks up entire families. "We’ll get a local boon of a national disaster."
Last year, the county derived about $22 million in revenue for housing an average of 465 detainees a day as cases await adjudication. County and federal officials said they hope to finalize an agreement for an expanded jail within weeks.
Chia-Chia Wang, an organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, a rally sponsor, said the nation’s high jobless rate has helped galvanize opposition to immigration — and made enforcement a booming sector of an otherwise moribund economy.
"All people should have the right to better lives." she said as the group turned onto Ferry Street. "Ultimately, we believe that people severely impacted by policy should have a voice."
An hour later, just past an NJ Transit bus depot and flanking Newark Bay, the demonstrators were across the street from the turquoise-walled, barbed-wired facility. On an unseasonably warm afternoon and under a hazy sun, they sang "We Shall Overcome."
• Immigration advocacy groups plan to protest in Newark against proposed detention facility
• N.J. illegal immigration level holds steady
• Essex County to receive new detention center for illegal immigrants
• U.S. immigration agency considers constructing detention center in Essex County