Protesters at Delaney Hall Claim Detainees Were Beaten Inside ICE Detention Facility
Advocates said guards used tear gas and batons as the 7-day strike continued, and ambulances took detainees away on stretchers.
- On Thursday, May 28, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and GEO Group guards at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, allegedly beat detainees and deployed chemical agents during an ongoing hunger strike protesting facility conditions.
- Since May 22, some 300 detainees have participated in a hunger and labor strike protesting medical neglect, vermin-infested food, and lack of due process at the 1,000-bed privately operated facility.
- Advocates report detainees were beaten with batons and had ventilation cut off, while GEO Group spokesperson Christopher V. Ferreira stated staff used only limited force to deescalate a fight between detainees.
- New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill reported state health officials were denied full facility access on Thursday and called for immediate de-escalation as tensions escalated outside the detention center.
- Congressional Democrats and advocates are demanding the facility's closure, citing systemic abuses within the broader detention network as 18 people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this calendar year.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Pennsylvania residents must demand our representatives take action against ICE abuses
I am appalled at the escalating brutality of ICE guards at ICE facilities (concentration camps) especially for the continuous, horrific events at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall where detainees, elected officials, journalists, and protesters have been viciously attacked by ICE/guards. There also have been serious injuries & deaths. ICE has been pushing protesters into oncoming traffic: one protester’s legs were crushed by a tractor trailer. Please dem…
‘We demand freedom’: Immigrants on strike in New Jersey prison
This story originally appeared in Labor Notes on May 29, 2026. It is shared here with permission. On a patch of sidewalk on a busy industrial corridor in Newark, federal agents with rifles, metal batons, flak vests, and balaclavas faced off against unarmed activists with cardboard signs and a bullhorn. Detained workers could be heard on the soccer field behind the prison walls, shouting in Spanish, “¡Libertad!” (Freedom!) Since May 22, 300 of th…
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