Nearly 300 immigrants held at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey — a facility operated by the private contractor Geo Group — have smuggled accounts to journalists describing spoiled food, mandatory work for roughly $1 per day, overcrowding, and medical care that detainees say is inadequate, according to a Guardian column that drew on detainee letters and interviews. The conditions have fueled a labor strike and a hunger strike that have continued into a second week, drawing scores of protesters outside the facility and triggering a curfew imposed by the city.
The accounts came in letters signed by nearly 300 detainees, including 50 women, smuggled to activists and journalists. Detainees reported that food has sometimes contained maggots, that they are forced to work for about $1 per day, that medical care is limited, and that they have been beaten and pepper-sprayed. The Department of Homeland Security has denied allegations of mistreatment. But Geo Group, the private company that operates the center, issued a statement last week acknowledging at least one instance of “physical altercation” that included “limited use of chemical agents,” according to the Guardian column.
A small congressional delegation was allowed inside Delaney Hall after being initially blocked. Representatives reported seeing inadequate food and medical care, as well as teenage girls held in the facility. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that the conditions showed “a depraved indifference to human life.” The delegation was not permitted to meet with hunger strike leaders. DHS has described reports of poor conditions inside the camps as “a hoax,” the column reported.
Outside the center, a week of protests has brought together anti-ICE demonstrators, including Senator Andy Kim, with a pro-ICE group that the column described as pro-MAGA locals. Kim said he was pepper-sprayed during a confrontation; DHS has denied that. On May 30, Governor Phil Murphy’s administration sent New Jersey state police to establish a protest buffer zone. The following day, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposed an overnight curfew, citing violence and public safety concerns after earlier clashes.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made it difficult for families and attorneys to locate detainees, the column said. Family visitation at Delaney Hall was temporarily blocked, though it was partly restored after protests. State health inspectors were also denied full access this week, according to the column; DHS “denied full access” to inspectors from the New Jersey Department of Health, in what the column said was a violation of state law.
Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, has said that if the hunger strike continues, ICE guards may resort to force-feeding detainees, according to the column. In a separate development, ICE tried to break the strikes by secretly moving one of the strike leaders to a different detention center, in violation of a court order, the column reported.