For more than a week protesters have gathered outside Delaney Hall, a detention center in Newark, New Jersey, chanting words of protest against the treatment of immigrants and the conditions in the detention center. On several occasions protesters have been bombarded with batons, pepper spray and the police according to The Guardian. What began as a vigil in support of detainees who launched a hunger and labor strike on May 22 has become one of the most sustained protests in New Jersey in years.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Delaney Hall can hold about 1,000 detainees, making it one of the largest ICE detention centers on the East Coast. It is operated by GEO Group under a 15 year, $1 billion federal contract making it the first new detention center to open under the Trump administration. Detainees and their attorneys say conditions inside are dire. Rep. LaMonica McIver, after an unannounced oversight visit, said detainees reported “not enough food, no medical care and conditions they call torture,” according to her website. Rep. Jerry Nadler told reporters the food was “very sparse” and that there were maggots in some of the food. Federal officials deny it and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis called the allegations “categorically false smears” that were “inciting violent riots.”
Videos from the protest show protesters fighting over barricades as police use riot shields to push them back, and police on horseback marching into crowds to break up groups of demonstrators. Asma Elhuni, an organizer with Resistencia en Acción NJ, has been among the most visible voices on the ground. She was arrested Sunday night as state police moved in after the 9 p.m. curfew and led away in handcuffs. Before her arrest she addressed officers through a megaphone.
“You took an oath to uphold the Constitution. It is not your duty to listen to commands blindly,” Elhuni said. “That is not your duty.”
Crowds throughout the week cycled through chants—”No justice, no peace,” “Whose streets? Our streets,” “Show me what resistance looks like, this is what resistance looks like”—and Spanish calls that drew particular energy from Latino families: “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” and “se ve, se siente, el pueblo está presente.”
According to ABC News. Gov. Mikie Sherrill dispatched state police to establish designated protest zones and vehicle checkpoints, with ICE agents agreeing to pull behind the facility’s perimeter fence. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka then instituted a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew within half-mile of the facility. On the first night it took effect, at least 50 people were arrested.
By June 1, Newark Police had taken primary command from state police and no major further incidents were reported. The state has now filed suit in Essex County Superior Court demanding GEO Group allow the New Jersey Department of Health full access to inspect the facility, after inspectors were blocked from conducting a complete walkthrough.
