Overview
- Advocates and lawyers say roughly 300–400 detainees began a coordinated hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall on May 22 to protest spoiled food, limited medical care, and other conditions.
- State officials ordered New Jersey State Police to take over the perimeter from federal ICE officers after clashes escalated, with authorities reporting masked people breached protest zones, set fires, and threw projectiles.
- Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced a nightly curfew for a half‑mile area around Delaney Hall that runs from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and officers made multiple arrests for curfew and public‑order violations during the first night.
- Family visitation, which DHS suspended over safety concerns, was restored in a limited way as state leaders pressed for calmer protests while continuing calls for independent inspections and possible closure of the privately run GEO Group facility.
- DHS denies there is an organized hunger strike and says operations continue, a claim that clashes with detainee accounts and has prompted visits and public demands from New Jersey lawmakers for greater transparency and oversight