NJ Spotlight News has obtained new information about the government's plans to use our military base in South Jersey as an immigrant detention site, potentially making it the largest on the East Coast.

According to federal documents, national immigration agencies have approval to use Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to hold a minimum of 1,000 detainees, up to as many as 3,000 under the new plan, which grants both US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection the ability to use an airfield at the base for up to two contracted commercial aircraft and crews at a time to remove detainees.

Now, a July 15th letter from the Pentagon also indicates that ICE and government contractors would be present on the base.

The move is part of a targeted goal by the Trump administration to deport one million immigrants in a year, and New Jersey's base would serve as an anchor to those plans in the Northeast.

The Pentagon also approved the use of military bases in Indiana and Cuba, though it's still unclear exactly why those locations were chosen and whether immigrant detainees are already being held at the bases.

The move has sparked debate locally and nationally.

Congressman Herb Conaway's district includes communities surrounding the base in New Jersey.

He's been a vocal critic of the plan, and he joins me now.

Congressman, we learned this afternoon that you and your colleague, Representative Norcross, are going to be touring the base tomorrow, I presume for an oversight check.

What specifically are you going to be looking for?

- Well, the Congressman Norcross and I want to make sure, first of all, to verify whether or not there are any undocumented immigrants on the base at this time, and to get, quite frankly, a lay of the land.

We have been advised that the Joint Base McGuire, Fort Dix, Lakehurst, will be used as a detention facility for undocumented immigrants.

And given what we have heard about other such detention centers across the country, we certainly are concerned about whether or not people will be treated humanely at a facility on the Joint Base if, in fact, a facility, a detention facility, is housed there.

And of course, we're concerned, as many are, that the base is an important part of our dispense structure and has a mission to protect the United States, to project force overseas, and to train our various Guard and Reserve units.

We don't want that critical mission interfered with by the distraction of a detention facility, when so many of them across the country have been really involved in quite inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants.

- Yeah, I mean, ICE facilities have had a checkered past, both under Democratic and Republican administrations, for that matter.

Do you have any indications or anything that would lead you to believe at this point that any inhumane treatment or lack of legal representation might be happening there if, in fact, detainees are already being held?

- Well, we're first, as I said, gonna find out if there are detainees on the base.

We're not sure whether or not there are detainees there.

As yet, we've heard rumors.

We want to verify.

We have an oversight responsibility, and we intend to engage in that responsibility for the benefit of my constituents and as consistent with our responsibilities as congresspersons.

But you mentioned ICE facilities.

Past is prologue.

We have heard report after report after report about inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants, people who are held incommunicado, people who cannot attain the advice of counsel.

If you're on a United States soil, you enjoy the protection of our United States Constitution, and we have heard report after report about those very basic constitutional protections being safeguarded when people are under the care of ICE personnel.

We have also heard very distressing reports about people held in stress positions, not being able to use the laboratory, particularly for women.

Often men and women are housed together.

There have been people who are detained with feces and urine on the floor.

They've been forced to eat off plates on the floor with their hands handcuffed behind them as if they were dogs.

Beatings, cameras turned off because someone complained about their treatment, and then have been subjected to a brutal treatment by ICE officials.

And so that kind of thing, if it occurs on the base, will impact the morale of our fighting force.

If they're there, our service members are going to, may very well be involved in augmenting the personnel in charge of guarding the detainees.

And so this kind of treatment, it's sanctioned as it appears to be by the highest levels and ICE will definitely have a negative impact on the operations of the base.

And again, we believe our military bases should be used for war fighting and for training and preparation for a call from the president to conduct military operations.

- Congressman, let me ask you about that very quickly in the time that we have left, because there is history at the base for helping refugees, Kosovo, Afghan refugees most recently, before they were rehoused and brought into the US seeking refuge.

So what do you say, or how do you respond to folks who say, this is an underutilized space, it's well equipped and therefore it's a logical choice to use an air base?

- Well, in the Afghan refugee situation, as an example, these are refugees, first of all, who assisted United States personnel in their mission in Afghanistan.

When they arrived on the joint base, and I was a health officer for the county, a host county when the base was used for the refugees.

So we had a lot of interaction with military personnel and others who were involved in the care of people that were housed on the base.

They had healthcare, they were well clothed, they were well fed.

If there was a pregnancy or another operation that was needed, they were transferred off base.

We worked closely to get vaccinations for people.

It was a humanitarian mission.

And the best values of the American people on our country were evident in how people were treated, how the refugees from Afghanistan and Kosovo were treated on the base.

We have no confidence, given the way ICE has managed its facilities in other parts of the country, that that same kind of humane ethic, consistent with our American values, will be maintained if one of these facilities is put on our military bases.

- Congressman Herb Conaway, we have to leave it there.

We thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you for your interest, I appreciate it.

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