Overview
- Large protests outside Delaney Hall in Newark have produced repeated clashes with ICE and security forces, including use of pepper spray, tear gas, barricades and multiple arrests.
- Detainees, lawyers and activists say prisoners staged a hunger strike and work stoppages to protest rotten food, overcrowding and inadequate medical care while DHS says any refusals to eat were limited and denies a large-scale strike.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reported nine arrests and accused about 100 anti-ICE rioters of assaulting officers, saying demonstrators bit, kicked and beat security personnel.
- Democratic elected officials including Senator Cory Booker visited the site and demanded Delaney Hall be closed after finding detainees with no violent convictions and poor facility conditions.
- Officials warned that local noncooperation could lead DHS to suspend international passenger and cargo handling at Newark Liberty, a move business groups say could cause billions in losses and complicate World Cup logistics; Delaney Hall is run by Geo Group and holds roughly 300 people in a facility built for about 1,000.