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ICE transferred Delaney Hall detainee to Mississippi two days after his alleged rape in custody, without explanation

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred Hieison Ultengo, a 37-year-old detainee at the Delaney Hall immigration facility in Newark, New Jersey, to the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi on June 27, 2026 — two days after he was allegedly raped by another detainee and briefly hospitalized. ICE gave no explanation for the transfer to Ultengo, his attorney, or his family, who learned of the move from other detainees. His attorney, Catherine Reilly, said the transfer has hampered his ability to fight a pending deportation order and disrupted his access to HIV medication.

Part of: Delaney Hall / Newark ICE Facility Crisis

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Newark, New Jersey

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 27, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred Hieison Ultengo, a 37-year-old Colombian detainee at the GEO Group-operated Delaney Hall immigration facility in Newark, New Jersey, to the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi, according to his attorney, Catherine Reilly. The transfer came two days after Ultengo was allegedly raped by another detainee on June 25 and treated at University Hospital before returning to Delaney Hall in medical isolation. Reilly said ICE gave no reason for the move to Ultengo, his attorney, or his family, who learned of it from other detainees still housed at Delaney Hall. Ultengo is contesting a December 2025 deportation order, and Reilly said the transfer has made it substantially harder to communicate with him and prepare his case; Ultengo, who is HIV-positive, has not reliably received his medication since arriving in Mississippi.

Why we recorded this

Due process for people in immigration custody requires meaningful access to counsel and continuity of care, especially while a detainee is contesting removal and recovering from harm suffered in custody. ICE moved a detainee roughly eight hundred miles from his attorney and support network two days after he reported being raped in custody, without explanation to him, his lawyer, or his family. Opaque, unexplained transfers like this one make it harder for detainees to exercise their right to counsel and for the public to hold detention facilities accountable for what happens inside them.

Sources

  1. Attorney says Newark immigrant center detainee was raped, then transferred 2 days later — Gothamist primary accessed July 7, 2026

See also