I spent 24 hours on the ground at Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. It’s the first time I’ve been to the Garden State. I’ve gotta say, the bleak industrial warehouse district where Delaney is located does not live up to the name — unless you count the overgrowth of weeds growing up from the sidewalks.
Last night, New Jersey State Police completely cleared out the protesters that Governor Mikie Sherrill had promised to “protect” from ICE. I guess “protecting” protesters means shooting them with rubber bullets, firing flash bangs and tear gas.
Even press were subjected to brutality. A reporter with AP broke her knee (though details on how she was injured are unclear at this time). In a wheelchair, she was forced to plead with police to be allowed to pass their line — trying to leave and get to a hospital:
As of this morning, no pedestrian traffic is being allowed near Delaney Hall. The protest is effectively shut down.
So what is this “violent leftist" protest that needed to be stomped out?
Eyes on ICE has been on site for a year. They have a large event tent staged where they provide support for detainees and their families. I spoke to a woman who told me that many of those kidnapped by ICE are the breadwinners for their families, leaving them struggling with not only the detention of their loved ones — but affording basic necessities (mutual aid to support them compiled at the end). Next door at a smaller tent set up for medics, two individuals prepare water bottles with eye wash in case tear gas is deployed.
On Friday, there were about 100 people out at 4:00 PM. I began to develop a cough — there’s constantly dust in the air, now mixed with residual chemicals from a week of tear gas and pepper balls.
Some protesters were milling about, others engaged in standard protest chants, others sang songs or played instruments. It all felt calm. When the gates to Delaney opened for a vehicle to pass, the protesters backed away. They heckled, sure, screaming at the Geo Group employees to quit their jobs. But the vehicle passed undisturbed.
Geo Group is the private prison contractor that owns Delaney Hall. They spent millions in Trump’s 2024 campaign and were awarded with hefty federal contracts with ICE for detention centers. Despite the fat bag from the feds, the people imprisoned in Delaney have been fed rotting food, food with maggots, and denied medical care. They have been cut off from communication with loved ones and lawyers. They have been beaten. Tear gas has been pumped into their cells. Geo Group has failed to put money together for janitorial services and maintenance — so they pass this labor on to detainees. They’re paid a single dollar per day. A phone call costs $5.
That’s what sparked the hunger strike a week prior to my arrival. With no other means to fight back in captivity, the detainees resorted to starving themselves in protest and refusing to work. While publicly denying the hunger strike was even happening, DHS deployed additional ICE agents. Only then, after a year of sustained protest presence outside Delaney Hall, did the violence begin. As we’ve seen nationwide, ICE began brutally engaging with protesters — beating them with batons, shooting them with pepper balls, spraying them with tear gas.
Ironically, that’s what finally drew attention to the hunger strike DHS was so desperate to sweep under the rug. And as attention grew, so did pressure on Governor Mikie Sherrill to act.
State Police began to move in Thursday evening, setting up road check points and blocking all but essential traffic. Protesters, now forced to walk a mile to Delaney Hall, still gathered.
Then Friday evening, all hell broke loose. Around 9:45pm protesters were given just 15 minutes to move all equipment from their tents down the road — but the instructions were unclear. Did equipment need to be completely cleared from the area, or just moved down the road? Still, people scrambled to comply, running boxes of water, snacks, and medical equipment away from the scene.
10 minutes to go, police issue an order to leave the area. Again, confusion follows — do they mean just the north end of the street where the tents are staged, or to leave Delaney Hall entirely?
Part of the confusion was due to the length of the road — 300 protesters stretched for half a mile north and south of Delaney Hall on Doremus Avenue. The police announcements were unheard by protesters further south.
State Police had been there all day — why only give 15 minutes? To make it harder to comply and give justification for what followed. When the 15 minutes were up, protesters were rushed by officers in riot gear and on horseback. They began firing flash bangs and tear gas canisters to push protesters South. Eventually ICE joined in, spraying the crowd with pepper balls.
A fleet of half a dozen federal vehicles arrived from the south, driving into Delaney. State Police launched another round of flash bangs and gas — then retreated. ICE removed the barriers installed earlier that day. Equipment that hadn’t been moved (per the police orders) was untouched — though now ruined from gas.
All of it was for nothing. There had been nothing happening. There had been no violence or instigation. Like we saw at the beginning of the hunger strike, all the chaos was instigated by state police.
The next day, day 9 of the hunger strike, DHS officials began threats to force feed detainees.
In a Saturday press conference, Mikie Sherrill doubled down. She has continued to insist that her escalation with the NJ state police is meant to “protect protesters” and their right to peacefully demonstrate. No one at Delaney Hall felt safe on Saturday morning.
And they were right to be afraid. Saturday night, all hell broke loose. A war zone in the streets of Newark. The following recap is from my sources on the ground, as by this time I had returned to DC:
State Police moved in yet again with mounted officers, flash bangs, tear gas, and now rubber bullets. Yet many report there was no order to disperse before the violence began.
You can watch how the evening unfolded thanks to the dedicated reporting by HeresWhyKevin here.
Late Saturday night, the mayor announced a curfew;
Yet this morning, no one is being allowed past police checkpoints. Mikie Sherrill announced that family visits (ending during the hunger strike) were to resume, yet later revised her statement that DHS had not met that demand.
Mikie Sherrill has played right into ICE’s agenda. She has essentially used state police to end the protest for them. I guess her method for “preventing the violence we’ve seen in other states” is to violate our first amendment right to protest entirely.
There is so much more I could say about this past weekend at Delaney Hall. For now, I’m going to tag accounts on the ground where you can get consistent coverage;
MUTUAL AID FOR DELANEY HALL:
Want to help the people held at Delaney Hall and their familes? You can donate to any one of these efforts!
🔗Direct to Families- Linktr.ee/SupportOurFamilies
🔗Grocery Store Gift Card Fund- GiveButter.com/GroceryCards
🔗Commissary Fund- GiveButter.com/commissaryfund
🔗Pantry Bags- Food4NJ.org
🔗General: https://linktr.ee/sussexvisibilitybrigade
And if you can’t contribute financially, make sure you share this article:
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