‘We are not criminals’: protests erupt as hunger strike rocks New Jersey ICE jail

A day after ICE officials pepper-spray senator, tensions ramp up outside facility on fifth day of hunger and labor strike

Chaos breaks out at New Jersey immigration detention center – in pictures

Protests against immigration enforcement at a facility where detainees are on a hunger and labor strike erupted in fresh violence on Tuesday night as federal officers sprayed chemicals and charged demonstrators outside the jail in New Jersey .

Following hours of relative quiet, a day after masked and armored Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) personnel pepper-sprayed US senator Andy Kim , tension ramped up again outside the Delaney Hall facility on the fifth day of the strike.

At one point on Tuesday evening, a protester who threw something at ICE officers was chased by dozens of officials, Tased and then carried into the jail.

The Newark-based ICE facility is operated by GEO Group, one of the biggest private prison companies in the US. According to activists and detainees, between 300 and 400 detainees are participating in the strike, demanding improved food, ventilation and medical care – and for their immigration cases to proceed.

The hunger and work strike and protests come as the Trump administration continues engaging in its controversial and increasingly unpopular, aggressive mass deportation campaign , targeting immigrants nationwide to detain and deport them.

A letter from detainees was published by advocates on Tuesday morning. Two men recently released from Delaney confirmed in interviews with the Guardian their participation in the strike, despite denials by the Trump administration that any such strike is happening.

“We are detained, we are on hunger strike, demanding due process rights and the improvement of conditions,” one of the men said in an interview with the Guardian. “We are not criminals. We are people who enter [the facility] with a clean record. We pay our taxes. [We are] Fathers. Mothers. Spouses of citizens with existing petitions.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Luis was released from Delaney Hall and huddled with immigration advocates. He spoke with the Guardian minutes later, requesting a face covering and anonymity for fear of retaliation by ICE. He said he was detained by ICE during a routine check-in with the authorities, which is uncommon for people who have a legal case going through the immigration system. However arrests during such check-ins have become an increasing practice used by the agency under the second Trump administration. He had been locked up in Delaney Hall for three and a half months, he said.

“If they freed us, we wouldn’t generate profit for this business,” Luis said, referring to the contractor, Geo Group. His hands shook as he spoke but he gave his account assertively. “If we are going to be detained for months so that this company can profit, they should at least provide a better ‘service’,” he said.

In response to questions from the Guardian, Geo Group provided a statement in which a spokesperson said the company provides “around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access” to detainees and other services, including meals. The spokesperson also said all services are monitored by ICE, adding they are “proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission” of ICE.

As nighttime approached on Tuesday, a line of ICE officers, armed with guns, batons, Tasers and pepper spray, stood outside the facility gates, occasionally pushing the crowd back so that official cars and vans could enter and exit the property.

This followed a hectic weekend of demonstrations and clashes. On Monday, a number of Democratic lawmakers, including New Jersey senator Andy Kim and Governor Mikie Sherrill, had attempted to enter the facility. Kim has made several visits inside the facility in his congressional capacity and has declared conditions are “inhumane”.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, and its department secretary, Markwayne Mullin, on Tuesday accused the Democratic politicians of “spreading smears” about ICE and denied the demonstration was taking place. “There is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions,” Mullin posted on social media.

Mullin said detainees receive three meals a day, evaluated by certified dieticians, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, toiletries and comprehensive medical care.

“Illegal aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” Mullin said in a statement.

Delaney Hall strikers have complained of inedible food that they have observed containing worms, deficient infrastructure with no air conditioning and poor ventilation, a persistent flu and other viruses spreading throughout the facility, delayed medical care and lags in their immigration cases, according to their Tuesday letter . In privately-run ICE detention centers nationwide, detainees perform cooking, cleaning and laundry work, getting paid as little as $1 a day .

“One thing about this entire chaotic situation has been consistent, and that is what people inside are reporting about their experience and what our federal representatives have witnessed,” said Amy Torres, executive director at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “Conditions were bad enough for people to lose their pregnancies. They were bad enough to start a lice infestation, to have a strain of flu that has been going around untreated. That’s what got people to strike.”

Kim made a long series of posts to X on Sunday listing allegations about Delaney Hall, including that a woman had a miscarriage at the facility and had to cope by herself, while another woman who was pregnant was unable to get full OB/GYN support, people were detained there after being arrested during their interviews for permanent US residency (green cards), and a host of other alleged injustices.

Mullin called Kim and other lawmakers’ attempts to enter Delaney “a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks”, referring to the fact that New Jersey is a state where collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE is limited.

The facility sits in an industrial part of Newark, surrounded by factories and packaging plants. The air by the facility is putrid, smelling like sewage and chemicals, only worsened by Tuesday’s heat and blaring sun. A nonstop convoy of trucks passed by the facility, with some blaring their horns in support of the protesters.

Protesters throughout the day chanted and yelled at the ICE officials. One pro-ICE counter-protester arrived in the late afternoon and stood between the ICE officers and the protesters, exchanging colorful insults.

As the typical workday wound down and the convoy of trucks slowed, protesters, who numbered somewhere over 100, and the several dozen ICE officers grew more agitated. At around 7.30pm, while the crowd of was chanting, one protester threw an umbrella at an ICE official, prompting the line of mask-wearing agents to rush the crowd, chasing them across the street, some at a sprint, and firing pepper spray, leaving protesters coughing and teary-eyed.

For the next few hours, the dynamic played out several times, as protesters chanted, yelled and threw items such as bottles of water at officials, who would respond by shooting orange-colored spray directly in people’s faces. ICE officers would rush the crowd and chase down individuals, pepper spraying anyone in their way. A Guardian photographer observed at least seven journalists sprayed throughout the evening.

At one point, over a dozen officers rushed the crowd, chasing after a protester who ran across the street and on to train tracks covered in gravel. As the protester ran, an ICE officer discharged his Taser, striking him in the back. The protester’s body went stiff and he fell on to the stones. ICE officers picked him up and carried him into the facility, while shoving and threatening to spray others who stood in their way.

“Tonight, ICE law enforcement officers were assaulted by anti-ICE rioters who sprayed law enforcement with an unknown chemical substance,” Mullin said Tuesday night. “Two individuals were arrested for assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers.”

Throughout the day, families with small children arrived at the facility gate asking to visit loved ones inside, only to be turned away.

“I was in there for three and half months. It’s heavy, we’re still not eating. I hope they help the ones inside,” said another man with a trembling voice, who spoke with the Guardian shortly after being released from the facility on Tuesday. The man seemed shaken, overwhelmed and nervous as he stepped on to the street where protesters chanted. “I don’t want to say anything more because then they’ll take me back,” he said in Spanish, without giving his name, as dozens of other media then swarmed around him.

The strike will continue until Sherill enters and meet with detainees, Luis said. On Monday, Sherrill had requested to enter the facility alongside other lawmakers but was denied.

ICE detention in New Jersey has been a political point of tension for years. The state passed a law in 2021 barring the use of privately-owned facilities for immigration detention. But a private prison company sued, with support from the Biden administration , leading to a legal battle that eventually struck down the law. Amid litigation, ICE entered into a 15-year contract with GEO Group to reopen Delaney Hall, which had been operating as a halfway house until it was shuttered in 2023. ICE and GEO Group began detaining immigrants there in May 2025.

Ever since, Delaney Hall has been a target for protest. Last May, the Newark mayor, Ras Baraka, was arrested after requesting to enter the facility, and US representative LaMonica McIver was later charged with various crimes after a skirmish outside the facility. In June, protesting detainees pushed down a wall inside the facility and four escaped . In December, a Haitian man detained in Delaney died of “suspected natural causes”.

“The stories coming out of what is going on inside are horrendous,” said Catalina Adorno, a volunteer with Cosecha, an immigrant rights organization in New Jersey. “We want to make sure they’re being heard. It wasn’t until Friday that they were like: ‘We don’t think we’re being heard. No one is listening to us.’ So on Friday, they decided to launch their strike.”

Following the announcement of the strike, Delaney Hall staff reportedly removed tablets from the units inside the facility, limiting the communication detainees have with the outside world. DHS said in a statement all visits are “currently suspended due to riots outside the facility”.

The detained immigrants inside Delaney are determined to continue the strike. On Monday, one of the hunger-striking men reportedly fainted inside the facility. According to Luis, facility staff did not help the man, so others inside the unit gave him water with salt and sugar, encouraging him to break the hunger strike and eat.

Protests continued late into the night on Tuesday. Torres, from the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, pointed to ICE officers’ tactics.

“If this is what federal agents are willing to do to the public, what are they doing to the people they have in detention?” Torres asked.