NEWARK, NJ — State police in riot gear. Tear gas. Burning tires. Demands for “free speech” from demonstrators. A counter-protest from Trump supporters. A dude in a giraffe costume. An appearance from the Proud Boys. These were some of the sights and sounds outside of a controversial ICE prison in New Jersey last weekend as a fiery political battle over immigration roared into its second week.
A series of clashes between ICE officers and protesters has been taking place outside Delaney Hall in Newark.
Dozens of arrests have taken place so far, with protesters accusing feds and state police of pepper spraying them, roughing them up and violating their civil rights. Meanwhile the detainees inside the prison are allegedly facing “inhumane” conditions such as a lack of medical care, worm-ridden food and an unfair court system, advocates say.
Homeland Security spokespeople have accused the protesters of attacking ICE agents. New Jersey state officials – including Gov. Mikie Sherrill – have also alleged that some demonstrators have gotten violent.
Here's what we know so far about the Delaney Hall protests:
PRISON REOPENS UNDER TRUMP
The prison is the first federal detention center to open under the second term of President Donald Trump. It formerly held immigration detainees for the federal government, until it closed in 2017 and was turned into a halfway house.
Its owner, the GEO Group, is one of the largest private prison companies in the nation. The Trump administration has given the company a 15-year, $1 billion contract to run Delaney Hall.
Delaney Hall has seen a wave of controversy since it began holding ICE detainees again, including allegations of poor treatment, federal charges against the city’s mayor and a U.S. congresswoman, a high-profile prison escape, and a detainee who died in federal custody.
Hundreds of detainees launched a hunger and labor strike at the prison on May 22 after allegedly facing “inhumane” conditions such as bad food and medical neglect.
The GEO Group and Homeland Security spokespeople have denied their claims of mistreatment – but several Congress members have backed them up, including U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, who was exposed to pepper spray after trying to negotiate a compromise between protesters and ICE officers.
Most detainees started eating again last week, advocates say. But they continue to demand their freedom, including the immediate release of elderly, young and pregnant people, as well as those with serious medical conditions. Read their latest letter from inside the prison here.
PROTESTS ERUPT AT DELANEY HALL
Family members of detainees and advocates have been holding protests and vigils outside the jail since it opened more than year ago.
On May 22, the wife of a detainee reported that ICE was planning to move her husband to a different facility as retaliation for helping to lead the hunger strike. In response, community members assembled outside the detention center and blocked entrances with barricades to stop the transfer of any detainees. Several vehicles were prevented from leaving the facility – until ICE agents used pepper spray and batons to retake the gates and remove the barricades.
Video footage from the scene shows a tense confrontation between protesters and federal agents, with some demonstrators being forcibly dragged out of the roadway. Others can be seen forming human chains and pushing back against lines of ICE agents.
The protests– and arrests – continued throughout the week.
Federal authorities arrested nearly two dozen people in the span of a few days, accusing them of kicking ICE agents, spraying them with an “unknown substance” and throwing objects.
Protesters and advocates have vehemently disputed the allegations from federal authorities, however, claiming that ICE agents have been the aggressors.
Activists say the situation has turned violent, with multiple reports of pepper spraying, baton-wielding and crowd-shoving shared online. The people who have allegedly been sprayed include a local pastor and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim. Others have been “roughed up,” including a nurse who was allegedly shoved to the ground and a military veteran who was tackled to the ground while providing medical care to other demonstrators. Another video circulating online appears to show an ICE agent striking a protester with a baton, knocking them back into a moving 18‑wheeler truck.
The standoff has also caught the attention of President Trump, who dismissed the protesters and claimed that the United States runs the “finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type.”
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GOVERNOR SENDS IN STATE POLICE
On Friday, Gov. Mikie Sherrill took action, announcing that she was sending in state police to establish a “protest zone” outside Delaney Hall in an effort to de-escalate the situation.
Working together, the New Jersey State Police and Newark Police Department began creating “roadway diversions” that blocked drivers from accessing the area – and got a concession from Homeland Security, officials reported at a news conference.
“While we establish these zones, our local ICE agents and partners have agreed to remove themselves from the immediate area,” acting NJSP superintendent David Sierotowicz said.
The Department of Homeland Security has also agreed to restore family visitation at Delaney Hall, which was suspended amid the police clashes.
The situation didn’t cool, however – with some activists accusing state police of simply picking up where ICE left off.
On Saturday, the governor’s office announced that masked protesters “attacked” the barrier around the protest area and began throwing projectiles, using the barriers as weapons and lighting tires on fire in the street.
Some activists have disputed the official accounts from New Jersey officials, claiming that they were “violently attacked without provocation” and sharing video footage from the scene.
According to the governor, five of the six people arrested by state police were not New Jersey residents. She also referred to the presence of Proud Boys members at the scene, saying that “national extremist groups” have become involved in the fracas.
“We know that people from outside the state have been interfering in the protests and escalating them,” Sherrill said. “I do not know why these individuals attacked or what they wanted to accomplish, but I refuse to let these dangerous actions detract from New Jersey’s dedication to ensuring public safety, keeping people safe from ICE, and that the people detained inside Delaney Hall are treated with dignity.”
The City of Newark has since rolled out a night curfew for half a mile in each direction from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“We will continue to protect the constitutional right to peaceably protest, and we denounce any violent conduct that interferes with peaceful protesting,” state attorney general Jennifer Davenport said.
Although many “peaceful” demonstrators heeded the order, others did not, with more chaos and arrests happening around 8:15 p.m. on Sunday, the attorney general reported:
“People gathered in the zone covered by the curfew order were given numerous warnings, in English and Spanish, to leave the area by 9 p.m. Many protesters complied with the curfew order. But a group of individuals who had come to the protest armed with helmets, shields, or gas masks deliberately refused to comply with repeated orders to leave the area and were arrested.”
Sherrill has insisted her administration is trying not to “give ICE a pretext to expand operations at Delaney Hall or across our state.”
“I am grateful to the vast majority of protesters who have assembled peacefully and raised their voices about Delaney Hall’s conditions,” Sherrill said. “That’s exactly where our focus needs to be right now – advocating for better conditions for those inside the facility.”
In the below video, Gov. Mikie Sherrill and other state officials give an update about Delaney Hall on May 31, 2026:
ACTIVISTS: ‘THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN ICE’
The governor’s assurances have fallen flat with some free speech advocates.
“The New Jersey State Police’s actions against protesters at Delaney Hall were an unnecessary response to free speech and the right to peaceful protest,” asserted John Butler, political director at the ACLU of New Jersey.
“The real harm we’re facing isn’t from peaceful protests, but from the rampant ICE raids tearing apart our communities, the brutality of the immigration detention system, and the retaliation and excessive force being used against detainees, observers, journalists and protesters,” Butler said.
Two members of the Climate Revolution Action Network New Jersey (CRAN) were among dozens of protesters who were arrested outside Delaney Hall on Sunday, the group reported.
According to CRAN, the latest arrests took place more than half-a-mile from Delaney Hall, outside of the curfew zone.
“What’s happening outside Delaney Hall is a clear and consistent violation of our First Amendment rights and puts everyone in New Jersey at risk,” executive director Ben Dziobek said.
“Gov. Sherrill’s decision to violently shut down protests, publicly disparage us as ‘outside actors,’ and blatantly lie about what’s happening is making the situation worse and giving the Trump administration more than enough cover to send in the feds,” Dziobek said.
“Everyone can see the videos online of state police tear-gassing and arresting medics, journalists, and elderly community members standing up for their neighbors,” Dziobek added. “There’s no way to spin this.”
Nedia Morsy, director of Make the Road New Jersey, said the response from the NJSP was an “absolute disgrace.”
“If the state police are going to use the same tactics as ICE agents, then they are no different than ICE,” Morsy said.
The below video footage from Cosecha New Jersey posted on May 29 shows protesters encountering New Jersey State Police outside Delaney Hall:
PROUD BOYS, AID STATIONS AND SINGING GIRAFFES
The chaos at Delaney Hall has drawn the attention of far-left and far-right protesters alike.
Social media influencer and activist “Robby Roadsteamer” showed up to the scene clad in a giraffe costume with a mini-PA system ready to “laugh in the face of fascism” by singing improvised Bruce Springsteen and Abba lyrics decrying ICE.
Meanwhile, dozens of MAGA supporters showed up for a counter-protest on Saturday. Dozens of pro-Trump demonstrators can be seen on video waving U.S. flags, giving speeches on megaphones and chanting “ICE… ICE… We love ICE!”
Members of the right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, were also spotted outside Delaney Hall last weekend.
While the extreme actions of some demonstrators have dominated news highlights, others continue to peacefully call for change at Delaney Hall.
Some protesters have been helping family members who come to visit their loved ones by erecting aid stations and giving them clothes and food – a form of “radical hospitality” for those impacted by the latest immigration crackdown.
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