6 events in Passaic County with a date

Delaney Hall concerns need real response

 

..... The scenes at Delaney Hall recent days have been raw and disturbing.
..... Outside the Newark center - leased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for the detention of undocumented migrants - demonstrators and federal officers clashed again and again.
..... On the night of Wednesday May 27, [2026] tensions boiled over as demonstrators, many masked and wearing safety googles, confronted federal offers, many also masked and most wearing protective vests and helmets. Some ICE personnel and other federal officers carried batons. Demonstrators and federal authorities alike shouted and screamed, They pushed. Chaos ensured.
..... On Friday May 29, [2026] governor Mikie Sherrill dispatched the New Jersey State Police to secure spaces outside Delaney Hall for demonstrators. Over the weekend, [05/30-31/2026] Mayor Mayor Ras Baraka ordered a curfew. Tensions continued to rise through the weekend [05/30-31/2026] and have simmered this past week. [06/01-06/2026]even as Sherrill has pulled back state troopers and Baraka has announced a legal strategy aimed at closing Delaney Hall.
..... What will come next?
..... Regardless, we ask demonstrators to make their positions clear without escalating aggression and violence. And we ask responding law enforcement officers - be they federal, state or city - to work to ease tension.

Why are tensions escalating?

..... Tensions at Delaney hall are not new, but in recent weeks, they've escalated.
..... First Sherrill was denied access to the 1,100-bed facility, which Trump administration officials leased from Geo Group, a large private prison operator more than a year ago. [2025]
..... Then, U.S. Senator Andy Kim was pepper-sprayed while trying to intervene between clashing protesters and federal officers.
..... On Thursday, May 28, [2026] the Sherrill administration announced that state Health Department officials seeking to inspect Delaney Hall were allowed only limited access.

Seeking improved conditions

..... What's driving the renewed sense of urgency for demonstrators? Detainees inside Delaney Hall are beginning the second week of a hunger strike intended to highlight what they say are poor conditions in the facility.
..... "We are not striking so demand better treatment and conditions, we are doing this to demand freedom," an unnamed detainee said in a statement issued May 22 [2026] as the huger strike began.
..... The protest inside Delaney Hall has echoes outside its walls.
..... As NorthJersey.com has reported, Gabriela Soto, the wife of Martin Soto, a Delaney Hall detainee, partnered with mitigation advocacy groups to organize demonstration at the facility over the past week. [06/01-05/2026] Among the groups participating are the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice and Eyes on ICE. Organizers have said they are there to show solidarity with detainees who are protesting "dangerous conditions" inside Delaney Hall. the group demand the release of 100 people who are elderly, young, seriously ill or injured.
..... "I'm fed up with my husband being treated like an animal," Soto said in a phone call with NorthJersey.com .
..... Immigration advocates have said the poor conditions concerning detainees and their families include poor climate control, a lack of medical care and spoiled and rotten meals. Soto told NorthJersey.com that her husband has had worms in his meals at Delaney Hall.
..... Paula Rogovinm a longtime Teaneck activists with the Eyes on ICE advocacy coalition, does not know how long the detainees intend to carry on the strike, which includes their refusal to carry out cleaning duties and staying out of the facility's mess hall, where meals are served.
..... "The demand is to release people, especially people who are not well," Rogovin said of the detainees' goals for a successful strike. "the bigger demand is to shout down Delaney Hall and free everyone. We know how long it will last."

Conflict must ease

..... Demonstrations continued as May [2026] gave way to June. [2026] Protesters have been arrested. Scenes of violent confrontations were disturbing and sadly foreshadowed even more contentious clashes between demonstrators and federal officers.
..... We support the rights of those who demonstrate peacefully, without question. We support the detainees who have engaged in the hunger strike in what appears to be an earnest effort to raise awareness of concerning conditions onside Delaney Hall.
..... But urgent as their cause may fell, demonstrators also have a responsibility to be no violent and disciplined. videos of protesters screaming curses, bellowing through bullhorns in the face of federal agents or digging up paver stones around the property, representative or not, can make activists seem dangerous and provocative. That does them no good in the wider public debate.
..... We also encourage federal authorities - including U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who has defended ICE operations at Delaney Hall - to dial back their responses to protesters.
..... Mullin, speaking with reporters at a Trump administration Cabinet meeting in Washington on May 27 [2026] said, "Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want.
..... "The fact is, we're giving them the calories they want. this isn't Holiday Inn."
..... That may be, Mr, Secretary. But the rights of those concerned about conditions at Delaney Hall are real. The detainees' concerns are real.
..... We encourage Homeland Security and ICE officials in Newark to attempt to dial down their response to demonstrations at Delaney Hall. No one wants to see how far violence can escalate.

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