NEWARK, N.J. — Several Democratic congressional representatives toured a federal immigration detention facility in New Jersey on Wednesday, amid ongoing protests and claims that detainees are refusing to eat in protest of facility conditions.
Following his tour of Delaney Hall in Newark, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Manhattan Democrat, stated that detainees were declining meals due to what he characterized as “inhumane” conditions.
“We will shut this center down. We will shut it down,” Espaillat declared following the approximately one-hour inspection.
Manhattan Democrats U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman subsequently addressed protesters and relatives of detainees who were demonstrating beyond the facility’s security entrance.
“We want to make sure the conditions here are going to be dealt with,” Goldman stated just before both legislators entered the complex.
Over 50 demonstrators carried placards reading “Stop Family Separation” while chanting “Free Them All” along with other rallying cries.
Several protesters directed comments at the armed, helmet-clad Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers positioned outside, shouting “cowards” and “idiots.”
The demonstrations started Friday and have experienced periods of heightened tension.
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, reported being pepper-sprayed when he and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill attempted to lead a group of Democratic officials to visit detainees but were refused access.
“Instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions, ICE sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire,” Kim wrote on social media following Monday’s confrontations. “Civilians were tackled and restrained, and agents fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd.”
Gabriela Soto stated Wednesday that her spouse was among those detainees who joined the food refusal before being moved to a different location.
“At first it was just 300. Then it became a little bit more. Now, every single detainee inside there is participating. Every single one,” she explained, dressed in a black shirt reading “Abolish ICE.”
Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, indicated his group has received “horror stories” about detainees, including expectant mothers, not receiving adequate medical care for their health issues.
“Cruelty is the point,” he stated.
ICE officials have not replied to email requests for comment Wednesday, though the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which supervises the agency, has rejected claims of any hunger strike, mistreatment or substandard conditions within the center and characterized the complaints as political theater.
“The fact is, we’re giving them the calories they want,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Wednesday regarding detainees at Delaney Hall. “This isn’t Holiday Inn.”
President Donald Trump also supported the detention facility.
“We run the finest facilities anywhere in the world — of their type — but we have some horrible killers,” he said Wednesday.
Situated along an industrial section of Newark Bay and operated by a private prison company, Delaney Hall has repeatedly become a center of demonstrations and confrontations between immigrant advocacy groups and immigration enforcement personnel.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, were among individuals detained during protests when the 1,000-bed complex opened last May.
