Hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark have been on a hunger strike since Friday, accusing the privately run ICE facility of inhumane conditions as clashes outside the building escalated Monday. Sen. Andy Kim was hit with pepper spray during a confrontation at the gate, and Gov. Mikie Sherrill was turned away when she tried to enter.
The strike has turned Delaney Hall into a flash point in Newark, with protesters outside the 1,000-bed detention center battling ICE agents over the last few days and three people arrested in connection with the demonstrations. Inside, about 300 detainees are being held at a facility that has become the focus of increasingly public allegations about food, water, medical care and retaliation.
Kim said the people he spoke with described poor food and water quality and limited access to medical care. He said several detainees told him they feared punishment if they kept protesting. “My throat’s burning. My eyes are burning. But again it’s not about me... Several (detainees) have told me that they are being threatened with retaliation, saying that if you continue with this protest we will transfer you, we will cut off visitation rights with family,” Kim said after the confrontation. His visit inside the facility ended before he was sprayed outside.
That account is being pushed hard by activists and denied by the Department of Homeland Security. Catalina Adorno said detainees were being given rotten frozen food, that live worms had been found in food and that some people were being denied toilet paper. DHS leadership says the allegations of inhumane conditions are false and says detainees receive medical, dental and mental health services as available, along with medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.
The dispute now centers on what happens inside Delaney Hall, where detainees have tablets to communicate with the outside but say that has not been enough to ease the hunger strike or the anger behind it. Outside, the protests have already brought pepper spray, arrests and two high-profile lawmakers to the gates. The next test is whether the pressure on the facility forces any change in conditions or only hardens the standoff already underway.
