NEWARK, N.J.—Mayor Ras Baraka issued a mandatory 9 p.m. to 6 a. m. curfew around the Delaney Hall facility, used as an immigrant detention center here this weekend. Families and supporters of detained immigrants have protested the extent of the areas cordoned off by the mayor, saying that they prevent access by both supporters and families of the detained.
Protests against the curfew escalated to people pushing past and breaking through barricades, and to setting fires in some streets.
Several lawmakers and supporters of immigrant, civil, and human rights have abhorred what they say are the poor conditions in the facility. There has been an ongoing hunger strike in protest of those conditions.
There are unconfirmed reports of protests inside the facility resulting in the destruction of property, including the alleged pushing down of a dormitory wall by either detainees or police.
Mayor Baraka has a history of involvement in protests at the facility. He was arrested and dragged into it in handcuffs by ICE and federal agents during a past protest. At that time, he said he was attempting to oversee conditions and join with lawmakers in Congress who were touring the facility.
Following that earlier arrest, Baraka filed a lawsuit seeking damages for “false arrest and malicious prosecution” against the interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, and a Homeland Security official.
This time, he has come under criticism for what some say is his willingness to tolerate police activity, particularly the extension of the curfew area to the point where it makes it impossible for the press to get information to the public.
The hunger strikers sent letters weeks before their strike about the deplorable conditions, and elected officials, many of them say, sat on the information until the hunger strike began and there was news coverage on Friday.
Among the reports are ones about worms in the food and toxic, undrinkable water. The showers are scalding hot and don’t allow for temperature adjustment. People are denied medicine and medical care. “There are 18-year-olds inside who missed their prom. People were abducted on their way to work or after their immigration hearing. They should not even be there. This is a for-profit prison,” one protester told People’s World.
Among lawmakers backing them were Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim and Rep. Rob Menendez, both of whom spent hours with those protesting conditions.
The hunger strikers sought the immediate release of anyone who was sick or elderly or who needed medication and was being denied medical care.
Because of attention from the press and the lawmakers, the Department of Homeland Security retaliated by transferring Martin Soto, one of the hunger strikers, to the Elizabeth detention center. They did this after assuring the NJ Attorney General’s office they would not do so. People who saw him during the transfer said he was bruised and battered.
When ICE arrived this weekend, they came after an afternoon of peaceful community protest. “We were holding signs in front of the facility, and people were sharing what had happened to their family members and their lives after they were kidnapped,” one told People World. “They came with a tank with a man pointing a rifle at a multi-racial, wide age range of people. The ICE agents surrounded one of the exits and laughed and made jokes. People immediately linked arms and sat down to prevent the transfer of more people.”
Sen. Kim tried to negotiate and told the crowd that ICE would disperse if they let vehicles pass, and a chosen leader that the crowd trusted could look inside the windows of the cars to make sure no one was inside. People decided against that plan and said they would hold the line because of ICE’s known history of lies. ICE then attacked the crowd with pepper gas, pepper balls, and batons to allow the vehicles to pass.
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