More than 300 detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, entered their sixth day of a combined hunger and labor strike on Wednesday as dozens of organizers and supporters gathered outside the facility to demand their release. The momentum built throughout the day, then turned brutal when authorities moved to disperse the crowd late that evening.
The protest was triggered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's decision to transfer Martin Soto, a key strike organizer, to another facility. Soto's removal galvanized outside supporters, who have faced escalating retaliation from ICE agents throughout the week. A Democratic senator and the state governor both reported being pepper-sprayed or denied entry during visits to the facility.
Organizers outside Delaney Hall maintained their presence with supplies and solidarity. Protesters distributed water bottles, protective equipment, and oranges to each other. At one point around 9:40 p.m., detainees inside the facility signaled out a top-floor window, flashing lights toward the crowd gathered 40 feet away, separated by walls. The protesters responded with celebratory cheers, a moment of connection between those locked inside and those fighting for their release outside.
The celebration was short-lived. Shortly after the signal exchange, supporters attempted to form a human chain to block vans from entering and leaving the facility. Livestreamed footage showed ICE agents striking protesters with batons and pushing them toward traffic. One protester had a foot run over by a tractor-trailer. Durga Sreenivasan, an organizer with Hands Off NYC, reported being hit with a baton and exposed to chemical spray. According to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, six protesters were arrested.
"Some of these chemicals can affect us for the rest of our lives," Sreenivasan said, noting that elderly women and young people were among those hit.
The list of alleged abuses expanded on Thursday. Allegations emerged that ICE agents had beaten and pepper-sprayed detainees inside the facility itself. U.S. Senator Andy Kim condemned ICE and Geo Group, the private contractor that operates Delaney Hall and at least 18 other detention facilities for ICE. Kim's office received multiple calls about the allegations and he called for immediate closure of the facility. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, who was denied entry during her Monday visit, added her voice to demands that Delaney Hall shut down after the state health department was blocked from full access.
The detainees' four explicit demands go beyond improved conditions. They want an in-person meeting with Governor Sherrill, the immediate release of all prisoners, faster adjudication of their immigration cases, and an end to internal pressure from ICE to self-deport. Members of Congress who visited described horrific conditions: cancer patients given only Tylenol, food containing maggots, and detainees forced to work for $1 per day or no pay. Detainees report being denied visitation rights, commissary access, and video calls to the outside.
DHS Secretary Mullin dismissed the reports on Fox News Thursday. "Not only are we providing them a safe place to stay, and food, and a place to sleep, but we're also giving them a convenience store to buy products out of," he said. "So we're doing above and beyond. The fact is this is political theater."
Hunger strikes are spreading. Detainees in at least five ICE facilities are conducting active strikes, according to reporting. Rogelio Enrique Bolufé Izquierdo, founder of Unión de Secuestrados por ICE and an organizer of a strike at another Geo Group facility in Washington state, was moved to an unknown location, advocates say. Organizers contend such transfers are retaliation for strike leadership.
On Thursday, Cristian Moreno-Rodriguez, executive director of El Pueblo Unido of Atlantic City, explained why supporters from across the state were driving hours to Delaney Hall. "We're here to hold the line to make sure that those inside are not forgotten, to make sure that we're fighting for the dignity and justice of them all," he said. "We won't stop until they're free." His organization came to support Nicolas, a team member who had been detained unlawfully and had not eaten since Friday.
Other organizers emphasized that the strike represented a fundamental refusal of the detention system itself. Maral Sahebjame, a board member with Resistencia en Acción New Jersey who teaches human rights law, pointed to the profitability of detention under private contractors. "These companies run on a lot of the labor of the detainees, which makes it a highly profitable industry," she said. "The privatization has escalated the barbarity and inhumane treatment of detainees."
Author James Rodriguez: "What started as a strike demand for better conditions has exposed a system designed to extract profit from human suffering, and the willingness of authorities to beat protesters into silence says everything about how threatened they feel by organized resistance."
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