A humanitarian crisis is unfolding at Delaney Hall, the East Coast’s largest ICE detention center, where a massive hunger and labor strike has ignited violent clashes between law enforcement and protesters outside, alongside reports of brutal retaliation against detainees inside.
The strike, which began on Friday, May 22, was catalyzed by a recent blistering heatwave that saw temperatures in Newark soar near 100 degrees. According to advocates, detainees inside the 1,000-bed facility—operated by the private prison corporation GEO Group—were forced to endure the extreme heat without air conditioning, compounding pre-existing conditions of contaminated food, inadequate ventilation, and denied medical care.
"The heat pushed people to a breaking point," said one organizer. What began as a desperate plea for basic human rights has now expanded into a coordinated coast-to-coast movement, with an estimated 300 to 400 detainees participating at Delaney Hall, and an additional 100 joining in solidarity at facilities across California and Texas
Outside the Newark facility, thousands of volunteer organizers and community members have maintained a continuous protest and solidarity vigil. Tensions boiled over into fresh violence this week as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents moved to disperse the crowds.
Protesters, attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights, have been pepper-sprayed, tased, and physically charged by officers.
The violence escalated dramatically when demonstrators linked arms to successfully block a transport vehicle attempting to transfer Martin Soto, a detained organizer who helped launch the strike. While protesters initially held the line, ICE agents eventually broke through the human chain early Monday morning, May 25, transferring Soto to the nearby Elizabeth Detention Center.
Despite the aggressive response, advocates continue to put their bodies on the line to prevent further transfers meant to fracture the strike.
Activists and legal advocates have unified around a strict set of demands aimed at state leadership and federal immigration authorities:
- An in-person meeting with Governor Mike Sherrill at Delaney Hall to directly observe the living conditions and hear testimony from those inside.
- The immediate release of vulnerable detainees, including the elderly, pregnant women, youth, and those with severe medical conditions.
- A meaningful review of ongoing immigration cases and habeas corpus filings.
- A halt to the alleged coercive pressure tactics used by officials to force detainees into signing deportation or voluntary departure documents.
Inside Delaney Hall, the situation has grown increasingly perilous. On Thursday, May 28, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice reported a severe escalation: an estimated 40 guards allegedly deployed chemical weapons against detainees inside Units 2A and 2B before beating them with batons.
Furthermore, family members report that guards cut off access to phones and tablets shortly after the strike began to prevent detainees from communicating with the outside world. Gabriela Soto, whose husband Martin was transferred after helping organize the strike, had been translating calls from inside to advocates just before the communications blackout.
While the Trump administration has denied that any strike is taking place, firsthand accounts tell a different story. The Guardian recently interviewed two men newly released from Delaney Hall who confirmed the strike's existence.
One of the men, speaking under the pseudonym Luis out of fear of ICE retaliation, shed light on the financial motivations behind the facility's operations.
"If they freed us, we wouldn't generate profit for this business," Luis stated, referring to the GEO Group.
The GEO Group, a for-profit private prison giant, has long faced a barrage of complaints regarding human rights abuses and inhumane conditions at its facilities nationwide. Critics note that the squalid conditions reported during the recent heatwave have been documented since Delaney Hall opened last year.
When pressed by reporters regarding the hunger strike and allegations of abuse, a spokesperson for the GEO Group denied the claims, defending the facility’s operations in a formal statement:
"[GEO Group] provides around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access to detainees, and other services, including meals."
As the hunger strike enters its second week and enters a coast-to-coast scale, the standoff between federal authorities, a multi-billion dollar private prison contractor, and human rights advocates shows no signs of slowing down.