A situation of upheaval developed at the Delaney Hall federal immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Outside the facility, protesters locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed. Inside, inmates relayed word of delayed meals. Newark’s mayor, citing reports of a potential uprising and escape, called out the disorder that ensued at the facility.
The Delaney Hall facility, which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expanded this year to include a 1,000-bed facility, has been the focal point of President Donald Trump’s efforts to curb illegal immigration. However, the full narrative behind the recent events remains clouded.
According to Amy Torres, executive director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, there was a physical altercation between the protesters and the facility’s officers. Torres alleges that officers resorted to using pepper spray and physically removing protesters from the premises. Minor injuries among the protesters were reported, but no instances of vehicular harm.
The evidence suggests that the unrest inside the facility stemmed from delayed meals. Attorney Mustafa Cetin, representing a detainee, stated, “It’s about the food, and some of the detainees were getting aggressive, and it turned violent.” The extent of the violence and the specifics regarding structural damage within the facility are still unknown.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has voiced concern over the events at Delaney Hall and has called for the cessation of the “chaos and for not allowing this operation to continue unchecked.” However, whether any detainees have managed an escape remains unclear.
This development follows earlier reports that Delaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials calling for more oversight and the administration running the facility. Mayor Baraka himself was arrested on May 9, charged with trespassing, though the charge was later dropped. Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was subsequently charged with assaulting federal officers during a skirmish outside the facility, a charge she denies.
Messages seeking comment were left with ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The facts, as we now know them, underline the escalating tensions at the Delaney Hall facility.
