Delaney Hall Detainees Sustain 2-Week Strike as 60-Plus Arrested in Newark Protests
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 7
Delaney Hall Detainees Sustain 2-Week Strike as 60-Plus Arrested in Newark Protests
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 7
Summary
At least 300 detainees at Newark’s 1,000-bed Delaney Hall have kept up a hunger and labor strike for more than two weeks, demanding release and a meeting with New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill.
Detainees say spoiled food, inadequate medical care and poor living conditions drove the action, while some also allege guards beat and pepper-sprayed them, sending several people to hospitals.
DHS has partly restored family visitation and released pregnant detainees, but ICE also transferred Martin Soto, a detainee held in solitary confinement as a suspected strike leader.
Outside the facility, clashes escalated as ICE agents used batons, pepper spray and stun guns against protesters, journalists and a US senator; state police deployment helped lead to more than 60 arrests in one night.
Strikes have also surfaced in New Mexico and California, and historians say Delaney Hall fits a long pattern of detainee resistance to poor conditions and forced labor in US immigration detention.