Protests erupted outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention centre in New Jersey on Tuesday night as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers used pepper spray and charged at demonstrators, escalating tensions on the fifth day of a hunger and labour strike by detainees. The chaos followed a day after Senator Andy Kim was pepper-sprayed by masked ICE personnel.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE's parent agency, denied that a hunger strike was taking place, accusing Democratic politicians of “spreading smears” about conditions at the facility. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that detainees receive three meals a day, clean water, and comprehensive medical care, and that there were “no subprime conditions”.
The facility, operated by the private prison company Geo Group, houses between 300 and 400 detainees who are demanding improved food, ventilation, medical care, and due process in their immigration cases. Geo Group said it provides around-the-clock medical care, legal visitation, and other services monitored by ICE, adding it was “proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission” of ICE.
One recently released detainee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was detained during a routine check-in, a practice that has become more common under the Trump administration. “We are not criminals,” he said. “We are people who enter [the facility] with a clean record. We pay our taxes.” He criticised the profit motive of private detention, stating that if the company profits from detaining people, it should provide better conditions.
On Tuesday evening, a protester who threw an object at officers was chased, tasered, and carried into the jail. A letter from detainees published by advocates confirmed the strike, despite denials by the administration. Senator Kim, who has visited the facility and declared conditions “inhumane”, was among the Democratic lawmakers who attempted to enter the facility on Monday.
