Hudson County has collected at least $166 million in federal payments since 2015 while neighboring Essex County terminated its contract and the legislature banned ICE detention there.
KEARNY, N.J — Hudson County has collected at least $166 million in federal payments since 2015 while neighboring Essex County terminated its contract and the legislature banned ICE detention there.
KEARNY — Every morning, roughly 300 people wake up in Hudson County Correctional Facility not because a New Jersey judge ordered it, but because federal immigration agents put them there. The county government that holds them has turned that arrangement into a revenue machine worth at least $166 million since 2015, with this year's budget banking on another $20 million from the same contract.
Hudson County is the last major county-operated ICE detention site standing in North Jersey. Essex County walked away from its contract a year ago. The legislature just passed a bill to keep ICE out of Essex for good. But in Kearny, the checks keep clearing, the beds stay full, and County Executive Craig Guy has shown no interest in pulling the plug.
The numbers are public. They just took some assembly. Federal procurement records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement obligated $18.2 million to Hudson County in fiscal year 2024, then tacked on a $2.1 million modification for what the contract calls "bed rate increase and population surge." ICE detainee transfers from closed facilities may have contributed to that surge, though federal records do not confirm routing. The county's own budget book lists "Federal Prisoner Reimbursement" at $19.4 million for FY2024 and projects $20.1 million for the current year. ICE pays Hudson County $146.50 per detainee per day. The latest headcount from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, published in March, puts the average daily population at 312. Do the math: 312 people times $146.50 times 365 days equals $16.68 million annually at current population. The county's higher projection suggests earlier quarters ran heavier or the rate ticked up.
That revenue does not sit in a separate account. It feeds the county jail's operating budget, which Hudson County set at $42 million for fiscal year 2025. The ICE contract covers roughly 48 percent of that operating budget. Close the contract and the county either raises taxes, cuts jail staff, or shrinks the facility. Those are the material conditions, and they explain why the politics look the way they do.
In September 2023, the Hudson County Board of County Commissioners voted 6–3 to renew the ICE contract along party lines. Democrats Caridad Rodriguez, Jerry Walker, Kenneth Kopacz, Albert Cifelli, Joel Torres, and Fanny Rueda voted yes. Republicans Anthony Romano, John Carroll, and Joseph Sokolich voted no. Romano, according to contemporaneous coverage, cited "moral obligation to end family separation." Contemporaneous coverage did not record Democratic members' floor statements. The Democratic majority cited the budget. Protesters disrupted the meeting. The contract passed anyway. The board's composition has changed since that vote; Rodriguez and Walker no longer serve.
Guy, a Democrat who took office in January 2025, has stuck to the same script. In January 2025, he told the NJ Globe the county would "honor existing contractual obligations while reviewing all revenue streams for fiscal sustainability." In March 2025, according to an NJ 101.5 interview, he said, "I don't make moral decisions on budget line items. I make sure the budget balances." His April 2026 budget address called the ICE money "stable federal revenue." Guy has not issued a statement on contract renewal since that address.
That example sitting 20 miles west is stark. Essex County's Board of Commissioners voted 5–4 in November 2024 to non-renew its ICE contract, effective June 30, 2025. The county's fiscal year 2025 comprehensive annual financial report shows federal detention revenue at zero. The legislature's unanimous passage of S-4091 and A-1984 in May 2026 — the "Get ICE Out of Essex County" bill — codified the ban. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, who initially opposed termination citing $8 million in annual revenue, reversed course and endorsed the bill.
The difference between the two counties is not ideology. It is scale. Essex County lost $8 million. Hudson County stands to lose $20 million. Essex County's jail budget could absorb the hit. Hudson County's cannot, not without structural pain.
The human cost runs on a parallel track. TRAC data shows the median immigration case for a Hudson County detainee takes 187 days to resolve. More than one-third of detainees exceed 180 days. Twelve percent — roughly 37 people on any given day — sit for more than a year while their cases pend. The length of those stays drives the per-diem math that keeps the contract generating revenue. A 2022 Seton Hall Law School report found the average stay for detainees with no criminal record reached 201 days. ACLU-NJ litigation from 2021 to 2023 challenged prolonged detention without bond hearings at the facility, producing a settlement that required case-by-case review for anyone held past 180 days.
ICE's own inspectors rated Hudson County "Acceptable" in 2024 but flagged "Timely Medical Care" as a deficiency. No enforcement action followed.
The county has never faced a state-level audit of the ICE contract specifically. The New Jersey State Comptroller's office last audited Hudson County generally in fiscal year 2021 and has no ICE contract review scheduled. The comptroller's office told one records requester that "detention contracts fall under county executive discretion unless a fraud complaint is filed." None has been.
Cumulatively, the federal payments trace back at least to fiscal year 2015, when USASpending records show an $11.2 million obligation. The annual totals climbed steadily: $12.8 million in 2016, $13.1 million in 2017, $14.5 million in 2018, $15.9 million in 2019. The pandemic dropped fiscal year 2021 to $11.5 million as detainee populations fell. Then the numbers rebounded hard — $15.2 million in 2022, $16.9 million in 2023, $20.3 million in 2024. The verified total since 2015: $166.4 million. Earlier years, likely stretching back to 2010 or 2011 when the contract began, probably pushed the cumulative figure past $200 million.
Hudson County is not hiding this. The budget line item is public. The federal procurement records are public. The board vote is public. What no major news outlet has done is assemble the pieces and show what they add up to: a county government that has built nearly half its jail operating budget around a federal immigration enforcement contract, watched a neighboring county walk away from the same arrangement, and chosen to keep cashing the checks.
Sources
● U.S. Treasury, USASpending.gov, "Hudson County, New Jersey, FY2015–FY2024 Intergovernmental Service Agreement Obligations and Modifications"
● Hudson County, New Jersey, "FY2024 Adopted Budget" and "FY2025 Introduced Budget," Federal Prisoner Reimbursement line items
● U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "FY2025 Congressional Budget Justification," Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detention and Removal Operations
● Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University, "ICE Detention Statistics: Hudson County Correctional Facility Average Daily Population and Case Duration," March 2026
● Jersey Journal, "Hudson County Holds About 300 ICE Detainees," February 2026; and "Hudson County Renews ICE Contract Over Protests," September 14, 2023
● NJ Globe, "Guy Says County Will Honor ICE Contract Obligations," January 2025; "Essex County Votes to End ICE Detention Contract," November 2024; and "Hudson County Board Renews ICE Contract 6–3," September 2023
● NJ 101.5, "Hudson County Executive Craig Guy on County Finances and Federal Contracts," March 2025
● Essex County, New Jersey, "FY2025 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report," Federal Detention Revenue at zero
● New Jersey Legislature, "S-4091 and A-1984, 'Get ICE Out of Essex County' Act," voting record, May 2026
● Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice, "Invisible Prisoners: Prolonged Immigration Detention in New Jersey," 2022
● ACLU-NJ, "Doe v. ICE, Class Action Challenging Prolonged Detention Without Bond Hearings," litigation records, 2021–2023
● ICE Detention Standards Compliance Unit, "Hudson County Correctional Facility Inspection Report," 2024
● New Jersey State Comptroller, Audit Division, "FY2025–2026 Work Plan," Hudson County audit schedule