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Delaney Hall Strike Crackdown
Hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and labor strike since May 22, and protesters outside the facility were met with force as state police arrived in riot gear and on horseback.
“One Baptist minister said that in his nearly ten years of visiting detained immigrants, the past year “has been the worst” The ongoing abuses at the GEO Group-operated Delaney Hall private prison in New Jersey are not an aberration”
The Guardian reported that “dozens of protesters were arrested, and some were hospitalized,” after Sherrill sent in state police to “lower the temperature” on protests outside Delaney Hall.
Truthout said photojournalists covering the protests were “deliberately targeted for assault by ICE agents and police,” citing “at least 42 assaults” and “five instances of officers damaging journalists’ equipment.”
Truthout also described arrests after a curfew was instituted by the mayor of Newark, with journalists exempt from the curfew and state police demanding that the press leave, before three who remained were arrested and one was injured and taken to a hospital.
Voices, Quotes, and Divergence
At the Trenton rally outside the New Jersey statehouse, protesters carried signs including “Gov Sherrill, stop lying about Delaney Hall” and chanted “Hey, Mikie, WTF?” as they accused Mikie Sherrill of failing to address conditions at Delaney Hall.
The Guardian quoted Sameer Khetan, a New Jersey resident who helped lead the Trenton rally, saying, “It’s about as gross a betrayal of these families [of detainees] and her voters as you can get.”
Truthout quoted Adam Rose, deputy director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, saying, “Shockingly, at least three of those arrested ended up in the hospital.”
Truthout also framed the arrests and assaults as part of a broader pattern, citing the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s documentation of officers pushing members of the press, burning them with chemical irritants and smoke grenades, spraying them with teargas, and striking them with batons.
What’s at Stake Next
The hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall is tied to demands that the detainees be released and that Delaney Hall be closed, with Gabriela Soto telling reporters their demands are to “close Delaney Hall and free every person in there.”
“A few dozen protesters rallied outside the New Jersey statehouse in Trenton on Monday afternoon”
The New Republic reported that immigrants inside have shared letters describing retaliation after administrators demanded to speak with the leader of the strike, and it recounted that “beatings, pepper spray, and from ‘ICE,’ a riot squad came up spraying pepper spray throughout the facility.”
The Intercept quoted Andrea Sáenz, a former federal appellate immigration judge who was fired by the Trump administration last year, saying detainees are raising that they “don’t have enough food to eat” and that “The food that they are getting is spoiled.”
The Intercept also said the Trump administration restricted members of Congress and state officials from oversight of federal immigration detention centers, and it quoted Sáenz saying, “ICE doesn’t want people to see the way that they’re treating human beings in these facilities.”
