Protesters Clash With Police Outside Delaney Hall In Newark, New Jersey

Hundreds of immigrants detained at the ICE jail known as Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and labor strike for nearly two weeks, protesting conditions that include spoiled food with maggots, overcrowding, and inadequate medical care.

“Relatives of detainees at Delaney Hall speak out about loved ones A Delaney Hall detainee who was picked up while on a diaper run sits in solitary confinement, nursing bruises he said he suffered while being transported there”

Bergen Record

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said in a statement, quote, "If the GEO Group — with a $1bn government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building."

Bergen Record

The curfew described by Le HuffPost said access to the Delanay Hall center, run by ICE, would be closed to the public within an 800-meter radius from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., with security assigned to the New Jersey State Police.

Le HuffPost reported that after a Saturday demonstration protesters attempted to force the police barrier and the response included tear gas, while the demonstrations had begun after migrants detained at Delaney Hall started a hunger strike and a work stoppage to protest their living conditions.

France 24 reported that ICE would stop providing security around the New Jersey migrant detention center after several nights of tense clashes with protesters, and that state police would take over to ensure public safety in front of Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

The Bergen Record described a hunger strike inside Delaney Hall going into its second week, with the Trump administration denying there is a strike and insisting detainees are being treated well.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, "Another day, another hoax about ICE. There is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall at this time. No detainees are being beaten or abused," while the spokesperson added that during hunger strikes ICE continues to provide three meals a day delivered to detainees' rooms.

Democracy Now!

The Bergen Record said Martin Soto, a 31-year-old Peruvian man, was moved to the Elizabeth Detention Center because authorities believed he was the organizer of the strike, and his wife Gabriela said, "They assumed that he was an organizer of the hunger strike inside because I organized a protest outside."

New Jersey Monitor said about 300 detainees say they’re on a hunger strike over poor conditions at Delaney Hall in Newark, and it quoted Michael Doce, who’s incarcerated at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, saying, "We are all frustrated because there are hundreds of people turning up to protest issues that we have come to accept."

Primicias reported that the DHS and the state of New Jersey agreed on Sunday, 31 de mayo, to reanudar las visitas familiares en el centro de detención de inmigrantes Delaney Hall de Newark after suspending them due to protests and fights outside the facility.

Democracy Now! reported that New Jersey’s attorney general sued the GEO Group, the private prison company operating Delaney Hall, and the lawsuit asks the court to grant the state Health Department full access to the facility.

“United States Police and private violence against hunger-striking activists at the New Jersey migrant detention center On May 22, three hundred detainees at the ICE Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey, began a hunger strike and a work stoppage to demand better conditions and medical care”

El Salto

France 24 said ICE will stop providing security around Delaney Hall and that New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced at a press conference that state police would take over, while police-manned protest zones would also be created.

New Jersey Monitor framed the Delaney Hall unrest as a reminder of conditions in New Jersey’s state prisons and county jails, noting that people incarcerated there have complained for years about dirty drinking water, buggy food, moldy bathrooms, inadequate healthcare, abuse by guards, intolerable heat, and other inhumane conditions of confinement.

New Jersey Monitor also reported that on Tuesday the state sued the jail’s operator, Geo Group, for barring state health officials from inspecting many areas of the facility, and it said Terry Schuster, the state’s corrections ombudsperson, is the only independent watchdog authorized to inspect state prisons and report prison conditions publicly.

El Salto reported that on May 22, three hundred detainees at the ICE Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey, began a hunger strike and a work stoppage, and it said the crackdown included pepper-spray attacks and the suspension of family visits.