Up to $20K reward offered amid ongoing search for 2 escaped N.J. detainees

Federal officials continue Monday to search for two detainees who went missing from an immigration detention center in New Jersey last week and are offering a reward up to $10,000 for the arrest of each.

A total of four initially escaped Newark’s Delaney Hall facility, where ICE has been holding individuals facing possible deportation, on Thursday. One was captured in Passaic on Saturday, by the FBI and ICE, and a second was taken into custody Sunday.

Still at large?

Franklin Norberto Bautista Reyes, 20, and Andres Felipe Pineda Mogollon, 24, both of whom federal authorities described as public safety threats, remain at large.

Reyes, federal officials say, was arrested previously on local aggravated assault and possession of a weapon charges. The Honduran had a last known address in Long Branch, New Jersey. He has tattoos on his right arm and cheek. Bautista-Reyes allegedly entered the U.S. illegally in 2021.

Pineda-Mogollon, of Colombia, overstayed a tourist visa and entered the U.S. in 2023, DHS says. He was arrested previously on local petty larceny and residential burglary charges. His last known address was in Newark, New Jersey, and he is known to have ties to Queens, New York.

Investigators say the four inmates escaped by kicking through a wall at Delaney Hall, a wall Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the operator did not have a permit to build.

New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim called the construction “essentially just dry wall with some mesh inside that led to an exterior wall. It shows just how shoddy how construction was here.”

The men ended up in a parking lot and hopped a fence. Kim says officials in charge of Delaney Hall are examining other walls that might be vulnerable.

Local and state authorities are assisting with the investigation.

“Additional law enforcement partners have been brought in to find these escapees and a BOLO [be on the lookout] has been disseminated,” DHS has said in a statement. “We encourage the public to call 911 or the ICE Tip Line: 866-DHS-2-ICE if they have information that may lead to the locating of these individuals.”

What is Delaney Hall?

Delaney Hall made headlines in May after protests broke out at the 1,000-bed, privately owned facility.

Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was charged in a criminal complaint with two assault counts stemming from a May 9 visit to the center. She was indicted on Tuesday; the indictment includes three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials.

McIver’s attorney, Paul Fishman, told NBC News the prosecution is politically motivated.

At the same visit that resulted in McIver’s charges, Mayor Baraka was arrested on a trespassing charge, which was later dropped. Baraka later filed a lawsuit against acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba over what he said was a malicious prosecution.

On Friday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker joined the chorus of local officials denouncing the conditions inside Delaney Hall, calling it “a house of horrors.” Sen. Kim confirmed the reports that detainees are getting too few meals and dealing with overcrowded conditions.

A woman who said her husband is believed to be detained at the facility said he has lost more than 20 pounds in the last month.

“He said it hurts to lay in the beds they gave him because he’s so skinny now, they’re not feeding them,” said Rosalinda Ortega, whose husband Miguel was detained. “Yesterday I called, they said stop calling and be patient. How can I be patient when they have him and are mistreating him?”