>> From NJ PBS studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News."

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, countdown to the midterms.

What will drive voter turnout come November?

We'll talk to strategists on both sides.

And later, we get an update on the developing story out of Keyport and the people living in the area whose lives have been affected by cancer.

But first, we talk with Democratic Congressman Rob Menendez about the midterms and his reaction to another ICE detainee death from Delaney Hall.

That's next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

-Congressman Rob Menendez has been a vocal critic of Delaney Hall, calling for more accountability after reports that now three people have died while in or immediately after being released from ICE custody at the Newark Detention Center.

The congressman is here with us now to talk about that and how he sees the midterms shaping up here in New Jersey and across the country.

Congressman, thanks so much for taking some time to talk to us.

A third person has died after being held by ICE at Delaney Hall.

What do you know about the details around his death?

Yeah, well, that's the frustrating part is a couple of weeks ago on an unannounced visit to Delaney Hall, I was given one set of facts by the ICE Newark field office a week later, DHS ICE put out a statement that had facts different than what I was told initially.

So we're still working through this, but what we know is that this individual had just arrived at Delaney Hall.

He suffered a medical emergency, was sent to university hospital.

Now this part's in dispute, what day he was released from ICE custody, but regardless, he was released from ICE custody so they would not have to investigate his death or report his death to Congress and the public.

This is a change that ICE recently made, reversing a Biden administration policy that required ICE to report any death that occurs 30 days after someone's released from ICE custody.

That was intended to get away from what they believed ICE to be doing, which was releasing sick people from their custody.

So they had to do no investigation, no report to Congress and just wash their hands clean of that requirement.

Has there been any call from Congress, a broader call beyond just what I know you and several of your colleagues here in New Jersey are calling for in terms of changing this reporting?

Have you heard anything requiring or asking for more accountability from other members of Congress?

Yeah, I mean, it's across the board on this and several other issues, whether it's ensuring that every ICE agent in the field is wearing a body cam, which should be the bare minimum.

But yeah, there's a number of ICE reforms that are working their way through Congress.

Really those things are going to come to the forefront when we retake the majority in November and have complete oversight ability in the majority come January.

In the interim, we're going to keep raising these issues, hold ICE accountable, not just here in New Jersey, but across the country, because what you're seeing them do is just truly inhumane and should be problematic for every American.

We're going to get to the midterms, but I want to talk first about the fact that you joined with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Congresswoman Annalia Mejia in a roundtable discussion with family members of detainees at Delaney Hall.

What did you learn from them?

What did you hear?

I mean, it's, it's what you hear, what I've heard every time I visited Delaney Hall, you know, first people that are not the worst of the worst, you know, in this case, you have people who are small business owners, uh, fathers and mothers of us citizen children.

Um, and one of those us system children was the 12 year old daughter of Edwin Lopez Cornejo, uh, who recently was the second known death at Delaney Hall.

His U.S.

citizen child will now go through the rest of her life without her father.

And that's one of the things that should outrage every American in terms of holding ICE accountable and making sure that they are at a minimum taking care of the people who are, who are, they are holding in detention at Delaney Hall and elsewhere.

But, you know, it continues, a pattern of a lack of access to medical health care attention, poor conditions that they are keeping folks in at Delaney Hall and Elizabeth Detention Center.

And why, you know, we just need to end this dark chapter in our country's history and turn the page to finally fix our broken immigration system.

Well, Congressman, some Republicans say that, you know, illness contributes to health complications and that certain health complications can lead to death and that it does not point necessarily to anything nefarious going on at Delaney Hall.

Do you agree with that?

Do you disagree with that?

No, of course not.

I mean, Republicans will make any excuse they have to for ICE for the Trump administration.

They've done it not just on this brutal, inhumane immigration enforcement, but folks like Tom Kane have defended the House Republicans cutting a trillion dollars for Medicaid, the largest cut in the program's history.

All three New Jersey Republicans were silent when the Trump administration was using the gateway as political leverage during a government shutdown.

ICE is just another example of how Republicans here in New Jersey and across the country lack a spine to speak up for their communities, to speak up for people and families that are being ripped apart and to hold this administration accountable.

They've shown no interest in doing that and that's why Democrats are going to send a clear and decisive message in November when we retake the majority.

Well, you say that everyone should be outraged, but the outrage around this particular issue with immigration does feel pretty partisan.

Is it enough to move the needle?

I know there's a hotly contested race in CD7.

Congressman Cain Jr.

is up against Rebecca Bennett, who's made this a point and many others across the country.

But do you think that there is enough momentum there to have a blue wave to make an actual shift?

Well, yeah, 100% I do.

And that's why you're seeing this administration and Republicans across the country try to gerrymander every single congressional district that they can, first in Texas, then Florida, you know, everywhere that they can, because they know on the issues, they have done the American people wrong.

Again, largest cut to Medicaid in the program's history, largest cut to SNAP in the program's history, funding ICE to be one of the most funded and most important in the world.

And that's not what the American people are asking for.

A war with Iran, a war in Venezuela, continuing hostilities against Cuba.

You know, this is not what the American people signed up for.

There's an affordability crisis out there.

And Republicans have done nothing to address it.

And so I don't think it's just immigration.

And that's our intent.

Between now and November, we're going to continue to share that vision with the American people.

But I believe people are fed up, not just here in New Jersey, but across the country.

I was reading an article about a ruby red corner of Montana.

An individual there that was apprehended by ICE.

The community there came together to support that individual and his family.

Down in Florida, in Boca Raton, another ruby red part of a ruby red state, >> I want to talk about the immigration reform.

When the Trump administration in Florida, another part of a ruby red state, when the Trump administration wanted to allow TPS for Haitians to expire, one of the premier assisted living facilities said if you take away TPS for Haitians, we will lose 55 of our best workers and we will not be able to replace them.

So this immigration enforcement by Stephen Miller, President Trump impacts all Americans and increasingly people are seeing it arrive at their doorstep and when it does, they are outraged.

Really quickly, you mentioned redistricting and I just want to ask the Supreme Court in Louisiana versus Calais really did open the door for this redistricting that we're seeing many states redrawing their maps.

Is there a role here for Congress to limit how many times a county can be split?

Do you see Congress needing to step in and the possibility that they do in just a few seconds left?

Yeah, absolutely.

There's a role for Congress to play not just on redistricting, but ensuring everyone can participate in our elections.

That participation speaks to the health of our democracies.

Republicans want to make it harder for people to participate.

Democrats want to enable people to participate.

But we need to have fair maps.

We need to have fair representation.

Democrats are ready to do that work in the next Congress.

All right, we have to leave it there.

Congressman Robin Nendez in the 8th Congressional District.

Thank you.

This year's midterm elections could shift the balance of power in Washington, and some New Jersey races are drawing national attention.

Joining me now to look at the most competitive races in the state and the issues that are likely to be front and center in the midterms, we have Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman and Democratic strategist Dan Bryan.

Jeanette, Dan, great to have you both on the show.

Thanks so much.

I want to start with the biggest race, CD7.

Obviously, we've expected to see national spending in this race.

Jeanette, we've seen the American Action Network that has ties to House Speaker Mike Johnson spending about a million dollars, not just on CD7, but also CD9.

Tell me about what you're seeing here in terms of the messaging that they're trying to hit in support of Cain.

Yeah, well, so this is no surprise, right?

The CD7, Congressman Cain's district, is probably one of the very few true battlegrounds in the entire country.

And they've always marketed it as that, although I think after redistricting it got a little bit safer.

There's about 10,000 more Republicans.

And the messaging here is pretty simple.

It's about the relief that Congressman Cain has delivered for his constituents for years now.

He's brought home funding for key projects.

He's put more money in people's pockets with tax relief.

And he's just a valued representative and a great responsive person to his constituents.

Dan, do you see this messaging on tax relief really hitting home for residents in this district?

Do you feel that, do you think that they're feeling that relief that people are feeling pocketbook issues maybe are not the biggest deal?

And I don't want to put words in Jeanette's mouth, but are you seeing that hitting home?

Jeanette's a great messenger for her party.

Unfortunately, that is not what people on the ground are saying right now.

Even before Congressman Kim's absence earlier this year, there's been a real frustration with his lack of leadership in the district and total inability to stand up to the administration on behalf of his district, whether it's for the one big beautiful bill when he kicked thousands of people off of Medicaid, hiked ACA premiums for tens of thousands more, whether it's Roxbury when he refused to stand up for the Republican Town Council of Roxbury that didn't want an immigrant detention center in their backyard, bipartisan opposition, did nothing about it.

So listen, this is years of him not showing up for his district.

The frustration is reaching a boiling point.

And I think that's why you're seeing so much momentum behind Rebecca Bennett.

So to be clear, you are an advisor on Rebecca Bennett's campaign.

Jeanette, what's your response to Dan's idea there that he has failed his district?

I disagree.

I mean, just the other day, Congressman Cain has talked about Roxbury Detention Center.

He's been in close communications with Department of Homeland Security and Roxbury officials.

He's someone who people can reach out and get satisfactory responses, successful responses on constituent service issues.

And he's been there, whether it's as a state legislative position, whether it's a volunteer EMT training person.

He's been representing his district for quite some time, as opposed to Rebecca Bennett, who's not even from New Jersey.

She's going to have to answer to a lot from the Democratic Party right now.

It's been infiltrated by the DSA, the Democratic Socialists, and they have just really radical left agendas that I think are going to put the Democratic Party in jeopardy this November when they're talking about defunding the police, abolishing borders, abolishing the Senate.

Rebecca Bennett's going to have to answer to those charges of her party.

I want to come back to the socialist movement that's happening, but before we do, I want to touch on this point.

We see that there's now a federal case being brought to by this libertarian candidate, Lana Ligia, who is trying to get on the ballot.

She was disqualified because of various reasons.

Folks who were getting petitions signed were not eligible to vote in the district.

The U.S., excuse me, the New Jersey Supreme Court refused to take the case.

She's now filed a federal lawsuit.

Do either of you see this, Dan, I'll start with you, as perhaps if she does get on the ballot, having an impact on the outcome of this race?

Listen, it's gonna be a close race, so you know, the margins do matter here.

Will this swing the race one way or another?

I don't think so.

I think this is gonna be about Rebecca Bennett versus Tom Kane, and I can go on and on about why I think Rebecca Bennett's the right candidate for the district, but I think, listen, courts tend to be fairly inclusive for candidates like this.

If they just miss the signatures, if there's small issues, they tend to let them cure and be on the ballot.

They tend to be more inclusive than exclusive.

Will this swing the race one way or another?

I don't think so.

Jeanette, do you think it'll swing?

Yes or no?

I don't think she's going to get on the ballot.

I think this is an election integrity issue.

She only has 80 signatures of constituents in her district out of 250 needed to file right now.

Everybody else is from out of state.

This is a really important issue because as we see primaries getting contentious, as the DSA tries to take on these Democrats, we really want to make sure that these are real candidates who are rooted here in New Jersey in these districts to get them on the ballot.

We just had in Lumberton, New Jersey, two officials, two Democratic officials, being charged with fraudulent petitions, being charged with fraud.

I'm not saying that this is the case here, but the statute is very clear.

How would you like it if someone from D.C.

decided they want to take out your mayor and filed a bunch of petitions to get on the ballot?

I mean, this is really about keeping our election safe.

And we know New Jersey has an election integrity problem.

Dan, yes, that's for sure something that I want to know if either of you think that voters in New Jersey are going to be dissuaded from going to the polls because of everything that's happened.

Do you see that playing out in terms of voter turnout?

No, we're seeing the opposite right now.

We're seeing incredible enthusiasm behind candidates like Rebecca Bennett, who's a Navy veteran.

She's a mom, middle class working person.

And there's an incredible amount of enthusiasm right now in the district.

You're seeing this, frankly, for Democrats throughout the country.

There's a big enthusiasm gap right now between Democrats and people going to vote for Democrats with large amount of independence right now.

But there is, Dan, let me jump in here, because there is a divide that we're seeing within the Democratic Party of more moderate Democrats versus socialists who really have been gaining momentum.

Do you see that as a divide and a split that the party is going to have to reconcile with and that potentially hurts the party?

Listen, it's nothing new for a party to have multiple factions within the party.

This has happened for hundreds of years in this country, number one.

Number two, there are a whole lot of moderate candidates throughout the country right now that are doing very well.

Roy Cooper is a great example, right?

There's plenty of moderate Democrats that are doing very well, just not getting the headlines.

We tend to focus on the more, you know, media friendly stories where people are making a bit bigger splashes, but there's plenty of moderate mainstream Democrats that are doing very well throughout the country.

There are some that are getting the headlines, even if they're not winning the races like Hong in Wisconsin.

- All right, we just have a minute left.

- I think the district is sick and tired of Tom Kane.

I think he's been there for years now.

He's done nothing.

He cannot stand up to Trump.

He cannot stand up to the Republicans in Washington on behalf of his district.

He will do as he's told.

And this November, the voters of his district will tell him that he's done.

- All right, we've got to leave it there.

Jeanette Hoffman, Dan Bryan, thank you both so much.

- Thank you both so much.

- Thank you.

- In Keyport and neighboring Union Beach, hundreds of families fear that an old toxic landfill We've reported for months on the suspected cancer cluster around the former Aero Marine dump.

A recent study commissioned by NJ.com found heavy metals in yards and parks just outside the landfill's entrance.

And this week, after months of residents demanding it, the State Department of Environmental Protection will also start testing in the neighborhoods themselves.

More than 470 people have now reported cancer cases to nj.com.

Some are still fighting.

Some have died.

Our next guest has been telling their stories.

She's Karin Price-Muller, investigative reporter for nj.com.

Karin, great to have you back on.

Every time you put something out about what's happening in Keyport, I'm just blown away by the impact that all of this has had.

I want to start with, we're going to get into the human stories, which I think are so critical here, but I want to start with this NYU testing that was released.

We know a little bit more detail now.

What can you tell us?

Sure.

So we commissioned NYU to work with us on this particular study to finally get some testing done at the houses, which is really what everyone's been asking for.

So we went with the researchers into the neighborhoods.

We received permission, boy, requests from more than 160 people to test at their homes.

We couldn't test everywhere.

So we went to 43 different sites that also included the public park.

And we found varying levels of different metals throughout the area, in the park, and at people's homes.

Some of those levels were higher than what's considered acceptable set by the Department of Environmental Protection.

And the question is really, could any of these things be moving into the groundwater?

Could they be making people sick?

Okay, so a couple of things.

You talk about the levels being higher than state standards.

In some, it seemed like they were exceedingly higher.

The state has what's known as natural background levels, right?

But the state has now, at the request of people in the neighborhood, begun its own testing.

What can you tell us about what they're doing?

Is it concurrent with the NYU testing?

So it seems that they're going to be testing for volatile organic compounds.

I don't know specifically what they're looking for.

I don't know specifically what they're going to find, but they're going to at least 13 locations in Keyport and three in Union Beach.

And we have to always remember to consider Union Beach here because the landfill that has been sort of at the heart of all of these questions, there's a creek that runs between the landfill and Union Beach.

So some of the homes in Union Beach are actually closer to the landfill than the actual Keyport residents.

But I think what's also really important to understand, you know, we have never been able to determine where any of these chemicals might be coming from.

And the landfill is an obvious question mark.

But the state has said so far, based on all the testing it's seen, that there is no pathway for the chemicals on the landfill to reach the homes.

Now, if there are chemicals found at the homes, the big question is going to be where did they come from?

And it's not necessarily the landfill.

Keyport has a history of industry throughout the decades and decades, and you never know how a chemical might get to a home.

So that's an investigation that the state will have to continue to follow if it does find anything at these locations.

But do these numbers meet the criteria of the state being required to clean up regardless of where it came from?

It would seem that some of them are.

Some of what we found were in that too high level where remediation would be necessary.

And exactly what's going to happen going forward is really unclear.

But I also don't know exactly what they're going to find at these locations in the neighborhoods.

So it's a big question mark.

And DEP has not released any of its own analysis yet from the testing actually at the landfill.

And it's unclear if they're going to release these results when they release everything else.

We don't know.

Yeah, we do know that Congressman Pallone has asked that the EPA get involved.

I want to just share the DEP's response.

They say that the DEP shares the congressman's desire for answers to residents' questions about the health and safety of their town, and that the DEP has been working expeditiously to conduct testing responsive to those concerns.

While that plays out, I want to get to the people involved here because your reporting is so powerful.

You took a look at many people in the neighborhoods affected by so many cancer cases, but let's start with Gigi.

What can you tell us about this woman who feels like is kind of the central player, sadly, in this story?

Sure, so she's the woman who owns J. Kebabs in Union Beach, but she grew up on Pine Street in Keyport, and so she sort of bridged both of the different towns in terms of her interactions with people.

So her mom had died.

She was recently diagnosed herself with colon cancer, and when this story first broke about the unusual grouping of cancer cases, her home was right in that area, the one where she grew up.

And so she allowed us to go with her to her treatments to hear the results of the most recent scan from the doctors.

That was back in May.

She has since had another test and things are still stable for her.

But we just thought that it was so interesting where she would just look around the restaurant and point to the different tables of other people who had cancer who live in one of the two towns.

Yeah, something about owning a restaurant, you get to know your clientele.

It was really interesting to hear her be able to say how many people she knew from the community who were affected.

Also, her mom did die of cancer.

And you point out that one of her employees lost their son to leukemia at the age of eight years old.

The Morris family.

That's right, and they lived in Union Beach.

Go ahead.

Tell us about the Morris family also.

Rusty Morris is the son of Ginger and Richard.

Richard was diagnosed with cancer himself prior to our story running.

What happened was that Rusty would speak to his mom, and every time they would speak on the phone, she would note somebody else with cancer on the block.

So Rusty started actually mapping them.

He found an aerial Google map of the neighborhood, and he would put a red X on any house that had cancer.

And that's when he first contacted us and my colleague, Steven Rodas, to first report that he saw something unusual.

And at the time he had 12 cases.

By the time we published the story, it was 41 cases.

And now I've had 470 reported to date.

- Which is even higher than the last time we spoke to you.

Tell us about Sal.

Sal Aghori actually lives in a rented house that's on the Aramarin property.

He calls his place Ground Zero.

His son died several years back of cancer.

And he's been really actively trying to get the community to sort of come together to find out how they can best clean up whatever's been going on at our marine for all these decades.

And then just two months ago, less than two months ago, he himself was diagnosed with leukemia.

So for all people in the community to suddenly get a diagnosis for it to be Sal, just with where he lives, it really was a signal to other residents to say, goodness me, I have to look.

And just a few seconds left.

I know it's very, very hard to prove a cancer cluster, but the scientist who's reviewing your data thinks that this is possible to be a cancer cluster?

So we had a researcher from TCNJ looking at all the data from the cancer cases and she found that they had a 15% higher chance of being diagnosed with cancer compared to what's normal for Monmouth County.

But really what has to happen is that the health department, which has access to everybody's cancer cases, they need to be able to, they need to take a closer look to determine if anything could be a cancer cluster.

Yes.

And more study we understand is going on.

Karin Price Muller, just incredible reporting as always.

Investigative reporter with NJ.com.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

For the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

(laughing) Is that... Wow!

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