New Jersey state police set up designated protest zones and vehicle checkpoints outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark on Friday, taking over a confrontation that had already seen federal immigration enforcement agents clash with protesters for days. The move shifted the apparatus of control from one armed force to another, with Gov. Mikie Sherrill saying she sent in state police to bring order as demonstrations intensified outside the 1,000-bed facility.
Who Gets Contained
The people being managed here were not the officials in charge, but the demonstrators and the detainees whose conditions sparked the protest in the first place. The protests began a week earlier after immigrant advocates said detainees inside launched a hunger strike over poor living conditions at Delaney Hall, which opened last May. Families and supporters of detainees say their loved ones have also been subjected to pepper spray and physical force in retaliation for their hunger strike and the protests outside.
Demonstrators had been attempting to block people and vehicles from entering and exiting, linking their arms in a human chain and using trash cans, umbrellas and other items as makeshift shields and barricades. As police erected protest barriers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who had formed a line in front of protesters moved inside the building’s perimeter fence. New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. David Sierotowicz said ICE officers agreed to stand down with state police assuming responsibility.
What They Call Order
Sherrill said the new measures were needed because the situation had become dangerous. “It has grown unsafe, and that’s completely unacceptable,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference announcing the changes. “We need to take this opportunity to lower the temperature.” State Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said it was important to “de-escalate” the situation as “violence, either against protesters or by protesters, is unacceptable.” Sherrill said she did not want to give ICE a “pretext” to expand operations in the state. “We all need to do everything we can to cool things down now,” she said.
The state’s version of calm came with metal barriers and concrete blocks. Some demonstrators staged a sit-in and refused to move into one of the new protest areas police set up. Rachel Cohen said she worried that demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights were being silenced. “It is not helpful to quell protest for the sake of a false peace,” she said. “There is no peace while we are torturing our neighbors on government dime inside this facility.”
Who Speaks for Law and Order
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, on social media, called the measures a “win for law and order” and noted that Sherrill had resisted sending state police for days. That same law-and-order script was backed by force on the ground. ICE officers wearing helmets and tactical vests used pepper spray and batons to try to disperse the protesters and clear the roadway for vehicles.
At least six demonstrators were arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers Wednesday night, and more have been arrested on other nights, according to DHS. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche shared images online Friday of bloody wounds and bruises sustained by ICE officers. “These riots are clearly not ‘peaceful protests’ as you can see from the photos of these horrific wounds,” he said. “Assault a federal officer, you’ll be held accountable.”
The protest response also exposed the familiar split between controlled dissent and direct confrontation. Lisa O’Dwyer said she was fine with the designated protest areas. “I like to get my point across and stay safe at the same time,” the Westfield resident said. Eyesha Marable, pastor at Mt. Zion AME Church in Millburn, said there were “different schools of thought” among protesters. “There are people here who are angry. Their family members are inside. Their friends are inside. People have been taken off the streets, out of their communities,” she said. “We have to keep the peace,” Marable said. “The goal is to get our people free, to get them liberated, and we cannot do that if we’re fighting out here.”
The governor and other Democratic officials tried to visit detainees on Monday but were denied entry. Democratic members of Congress from New York City, however, were able to tour Delaney Hall the day after that. They reported dire conditions, with detainees being fed small portions of often spoiled food and their varied medical needs going ignored. The facility remained under the control of the people with badges, fences, and the power to decide who gets in, who gets out, and who gets heard.