{"id":76098,"date":"2026-05-28T23:11:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=76098"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:11:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:11:43","slug":"detained-immigrants-on-strike-at-delaney-hall-dont-give-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/detained-immigrants-on-strike-at-delaney-hall-dont-give-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Detained immigrants on strike at Delaney Hall: \u2018Don\u2019t give up!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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On May 22, about 300 immigrants detained at the Delaney Hall jail in Newark, N.J., began a labor and hunger strike. The bold action was organized to call attention to the inhumane conditions they are facing at the facility and to protest the lack of due process that led to their incarceration by ICE. They charge that immigration judges are ignoring their cases and that their bonds have been denied\u2014tactics, they say, that are employed in order to force the migrants to self-deport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, May 26, Eyes on ICE New Jersey, an immigrant solidarity group, affirmed that about 200 detainees were still on strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Delaney Hall in Newark. (Reena Rose Sibayan \/ New Jersey Monitor)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of a week, the strikers have issued three letters outlining their complaints and demands. In the letters, they have asked for the immediate release of elderly, pregnant, young, or sick detainees; a \u201cmeaningful review\u201d of immigration cases and habeas filings; and a halt to the pressure placed upon them to sign deportation documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conditions described by the strikers, and attested to by several members of Congress who visited the facilities, are abysmal. The detainees stated they had been served decaying food that contained worms and maggots. They lacked access to clean water and had to contend with sewage backups inside the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, a coalition of immigrant rights groups in New Jersey, said the conditions raised by detainees had gotten worse in recent months. \u201cAs we\u2019ve heard from the hunger strikers themselves, there are people with really serious medical conditions who are not being treated,\u201d said Torres. \u201cThere\u2019s an outbreak of lice. There\u2019s an outbreak of the flu inside. When people in detention complain about any sort of pain or symptom, they\u2019re given a tab of Tylenol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prison management has retaliated against the strikers by limiting their right to speak with people on the outside as well as by switching off TVs, withholding access to commissary accounts, leaving the lights on all night, and frequently turning off the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strikers have also been hit by violence. On Thursday, May 8, Kathy O\u2019Leary, from Pax Christi USA, told CBS News, \u201cWe started getting calls from inside that the jail guards, 40 of them, were coming through two of the units, beating people with batons and throwing chemical agent canisters into the hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another person said, \u201cIt was 1:35 when my husband called me screaming, and all of the guys in there screaming, because they were getting hit.\u201d Several ambulances were seen at the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of protesters have gathered day and night outside the prison gates to express their solidarity with the inmates. A tent has been set up to serve as a \u201cradical hospitality zone,\u201d where relatives and friends of the detainees can gather in relative comfort. Inside, relatives and solidarity activists spoke with the Delaney prisoners by phone and tablets\u2014until the guards cut off their communication devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning on Monday, Memorial Day, ICE agents outside the facility, who are armed with rubber-bullet guns, truncheons, and pepper spray, greatly escalated their violent attacks on the protesters. On that day, U.S. Senator Andy Kim and Governor Mikie Sherrill led a delegation of New Jersey Democratic Party officials who sought to visit the facility. Sherril was denied entry, but Kim, as a federal representative, was allowed in to speak with the prisoners. After he left the facility, Kim was hit by tear gas and pepper bombs as the ICE operatives attacked. \u201cInstead 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,\u201d Kim posted on social media after Monday\u2019s clashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News reports and video have shown scenes of protesters being struck repeatedly with truncheons, thrown to the ground, and hosed with pepper spray. Late Wednesday night, May 27, as photographed by AMNY<\/em> and other news media and phone cameras, an ICE agent threw a person into the path of a moving truck, which ran over his leg. Another agent then pushed a second man between the wheels of the truck; the protester narrowly missed being crushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaney Hall, part of the growing network of ICE detention centers, contains 1000 beds and is run by the private GEO Group prison firm, which has a 15-year, $1 billion contract to run the complex. It is a warehouse-type building set next to rows of oil tanks in a bleak industrial neighborhood along the Passaic River. The Essex County Correctional Facility is just up the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike by the Delaney Hall detainees, and the ICE attacks on solidarity activists outside the building, have received national attention. President Trump, while ignoring the reports of extreme violence by ICE agents, remarked, \u201cThese aren\u2019t protesters; these people are fake, they\u2019re all paid for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a May 27 cabinet meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Trump boasted, \u201cWe run the finest [migrant detention] facilities anywhere in the world of their type.\u201d Mullin similarly downplayed the accounts of squalid conditions at Delaney, while insisting, \u201cThis isn\u2019t the Holiday Inn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shut down Delaney Hall! Freedom for the detainees! Abolish ICE!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Letter From Delaney Hall: \u201cDon\u2019t Give Up!\u201c<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Date: May 26, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location: Delaney Hall Detention Facility \u2013 ICE<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communique<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, the detainees at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility, wish to express our objection to the violation of our rights as immigrant human beings. We, the detainees, are demanding our progressive release, based on the fact that our arrests were illegal; immigrants to this country have the right to await our pending immigration proceedings outside of prison; therefore, we demand to be released on bond or parole so that we may complete our proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, we call for greater efficiency in our judicial processes, as well as greater effectiveness and urgency for those who request and sign their voluntary release; we believe it is unjust to keep people who wish to leave of their own free will in custody for up to three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the unlawful and forced detention of most of us who find ourselves locked up here, there is the inhumane treatment that all detainees in this facility endure on a daily basis. The company in charge (GEO) fails to meet the basic conditions necessary to protect our health and our lives. To their administrative incompetence, we must add the following injustices and irregularities perpetrated by ICE and GEO:<\/p>\n\n\n\n