By MICHAEL SCHREIBER

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—tactics, they say, that are employed in order to force the migrants to self-deport.

On Tuesday, May 26, Eyes on ICE New Jersey, an immigrant solidarity group, affirmed that about 200 detainees were still on strike.

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 “meaningful review” of immigration cases and habeas filings; and a halt to the pressure placed upon them to sign deportation documents.

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.

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. “As we’ve heard from the hunger strikers themselves, there are people with really serious medical conditions who are not being treated,” said Torres. “There’s an outbreak of lice. There’s an outbreak of the flu inside. When people in detention complain about any sort of pain or symptom, they’re given a tab of Tylenol.”

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.

The strikers have also been hit by violence. On Thursday, May 28, Kathy O’Leary, from Pax Christi USA, told CBS News, “We 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.”

Another person said, “It was 1:35 when my husband called me screaming, and all of the guys in there screaming, because they were getting hit.” Several ambulances were seen at the facility.

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 “radical hospitality zone,” 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—until the guards cut off their communication devices.

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 member of Congress, 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. “Instead 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,” Kim posted on social media after Monday’s clashes.

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 and other news media and by 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.

Delaney Hall, part of the growing network of ICE detention centers, contains 1000 beds and is run by the GEO Group, a private and for-profit 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.

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, “These aren’t protesters; these people are fake, they’re all paid for.”

At a May 27 cabinet meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Trump boasted, “We run the finest [migrant detention] facilities anywhere in the world of their type.” Mullin similarly downplayed the accounts of squalid conditions at Delaney, while insisting, “This isn’t the Holiday Inn.”

Shut down Delaney Hall! Freedom for the detainees! Abolish ICE!

A Letter From Delaney Hall: “Don’t Give Up!“

Date: May 26, 2026

Location: Delaney Hall Detention Facility – ICE

Communique

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.

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.

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:

• Food containing worms or in a state of decay.
• Unresolved issues, particularly regarding the bathrooms, which are in terrible and inhumane condition.
• Ventilation problems.
• Serious health issues: most people have a persistent flu with phlegm that won’t go away; many have conjunctivitis, urinary tract infections, fever, and coughs.
• Medical care issues:
  • If you’re sick, you have to submit a request that takes two weeks to be answered—or you never get a response at all.
  • Nurses refuse to treat you right away
  • They only prescribe Tylenol for all ailments
  • The nurses’ exact words: “We’re not a PHARMACY”
• ICE agents coerce detainees into signing deportation orders
• There is no emergency protocol: in cases of falls or attacks, emergency response arrives an hour late
• Judges’ rulings are highly questionable; most bond requests are denied without legal basis
• Detainees are forced to work, in most cases without pay, or for $1 an hour
  We appreciate the support of everyone who is protesting outside the facility. We want you to know that you give us the strength and determination to keep going. Please, DON’T GIVE UP!
  We ask all relevant authorities for an urgent response and look forward to hearing from them. With the utmost respect, the detainees at the Delaney Hall facility.God bless you!

Top photo: ICE agent outside Delaney Hall pushes an immigration solidarity protester under a moving truck on the night of May 27. (Dean Moses / AMNY)