A prominent donor family, including a trustee, of Kean University in New Jersey continues to own a warehouse used to house detained migrants. The warehouse, located in Elizabeth, is the closest detention center to New York City. Given the Trump administration’s plans to use the military for mass deportations, deport naturalized citizens, and ignore birthright citizenship, the Kean University community should be concerned about the university’s role in this crisis.

Dave Gibbons, CEO and president of Elberon Development Group, which owns numerous properties in Elizabeth, sits on the university’s board of trustees. The board of trustees holds public meetings in a conference room named after Gibbons, presumably named because of a donation by Gibbons. Gibbons’ mother, Anne Evans Estabrook, a former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is the chairman of Elberon. The university has received donations from the Estabrook family displayed eponymously through a fountain, garden, rooms, and faculty fellowships, one of which is ironically a human rights fellowship. Evans Estabrook was formerly the vice-chair of the board at Kean’s campus in Wenzhou, China.

Located at 625 Evans Street in Elizabeth is the warehouse owned by Gibbons and Evans Estabrook. In the summer of 2020, after outcry from students at the university and the surrounding community, Elberon announced it would terminate its relationship with CoreCivic, the for-profit prison company operating the detention facility known as the Elizabeth Detention Center. Despite this announcement, Elberon and CoreCivic are still in a business relationship. Recently, CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) extended their contract for the facility until at least 2027. In 2021, Elberon, through its affiliate, Portview Properties, filed a lawsuit against CoreCivic to terminate their lease. In December 2023, Portview Properties and CoreCivic agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.

While Elberon made a public attempt to terminate the contract, the subsequent silence demonstrates satisfaction with continuing to profit from the relationship. Elberon began leasing the warehouse as a detention facility for ICE in 1993. It was not until public pressure mounted that Elberon announced it would end the relationship with CoreCivic. According to Elberon’s list of holdings on their website, the company owns 32 properties, equating to millions of square footage, 25,300 of which is diminutively added by the detention center. Given the amount of property it owns, Elberon could easily part with this one warehouse. Still, it appears Gibbons and his family would rather profit from the Trump administration’s use of the detention center.

Kean University is a highly diverse university, possessing a considerable population of students who have migrated to New Jersey or whose immediate family members have migrated. In 2018, the university had the second-most unauthorized immigrants enrolled at a university in the state. Students at Kean University have perhaps known people detained at this facility or been inside this facility themselves. Students at Kean University or their family members are at risk of harm, given the Trump administration’s plans to deport as many individuals as possible, even through extralegal means, including the deportation of naturalized citizens. Kean University should not have a trustee, one so prominent that their meeting room is named after him, profiting from the Trump administration’s cruelty against these vulnerable community members.

Gibbons, his family, and Kean University have chosen a relatively small amount of assets over the security of students at Kean and their families. Despite owning millions of square feet of real estate, Gibbons and Elberon continue to hold onto an industrial warehouse where people are caged inside. Gibbons and his family have profited from this caging since 1993, and had no apparent issue with it until public pressure mounted. Since public pressure has died down from four years ago, they continue to profit silently. While the Trump administration begins to tear apart families using Gibbons’ warehouse, Gibbons will continue to cash his check from CoreCivic. The bylaws of the university’s board of trustees prescribe that a trustee is to “refrain from actions and involvements that might prove harmful to the University.” If helping to harm students at the university and profiting from their harm isn’t harmful to Kean University, what is?