Fox News is misrepresenting who is being held at Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in New Jersey, echoing Department of Homeland Security talking points that the people in detention there are “some of the worst of the worst who have been arrested." In reality, ICE's own data indicates that the majority of people imprisoned at Delaney Hall have no criminal record.  

Delaney Hall recently regained national attention after reports of a hunger and labor strike by detainees protesting poor conditions led to demonstrations outside. Data from the Deportation Data Project, according to Syracuse University assistant professor Austin Kocher, shows that as of mid-March, 88% of those detained at Delaney Hall following its reopening in 2025 had no criminal conviction, and 71% had “no criminal history whatsoever.” Data from Detention Reports shows that as of early April, the “criminal population” at the facility comprised only 6% of detainees. 

Furthermore, 84% of people imprisoned at the facility had no final order of removal. This stands in direct contradiction to the claim made by Fox host Griff Jenkins that a “majority” of the people apprehended by ICE and held at Delaney Hall “have had their day in court, they have had due process, they have final orders of removal.”

Lori Nessel, the director of the Seton Hall University Law Detention and Deportation Defense Initiative, told WHYY the idea that people in detention centers are criminals is a “myth that the administration constantly tries to perpetuate." She said over 70% of the immigrants detained by ICE do not have criminal convictions.

These facts haven’t stopped Fox News from broadly claiming that people currently being held at Delaney Hall are “some of the worst of the worst” and “not necessarily the kind of people you want walking around your neighborhoods.”