Hudson County jail changes its policy to allow immigration detainees to have more visitors

Responding to complaints from immigrant rights advocates, the Hudson County jail has changed its policy on visitation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.

Until recently, detainees could fill out cards with the names of five visitors who would be granted access to see them and those cards would be updated periodically.

But after a jail employee told a detainee the cards could only be updated every 90 days, activists complained and officials looked into the issue.

“That was clearly miscommunication that we regret,” said county spokesman Jim Kennelly about the 90-day message. “We don’t want anyone in the detainee population or advocates for them thinking that we are trying to limit their access.”

Kennelly said detainees were told last week that they can update their cards whenever they want and will be able to submit as many cards and visitor’s names as they like.

The jail is also in the process of purchasing a computer so visitor lists can be updated electronically.

Immigrations activists and students at NYU Law School’s Immigration Rights Clinic came out against the policy.

“Hudson County jail realized how arbitrary and unjust it was to limit detainees to visiting lists of five people,” said Karina Wilkinson, co-founder of Middlesex County Coalition for Immigration Rights. “That is a small piece of a huge problem. Immigrant detainees continue to be denied access to the community, lawyers and family.”

Wilkinson started visiting the Hudson County jail after the Middlesex County jail stopped housing immigrants and some of the detainees were transferred to Hudson.

Hudson currently houses about 300 detainees.

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