New Jersey’s attorney general says state police have “temporarily cleared” the area in front of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark after protesters deployed fireworks and threw gas canisters at law enforcement late Friday night — just hours after the state’s governor announced state police would establish a “peaceful protest zone.”
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement posted to social media that state police were seeking to ensure safe passage of vehicles transporting people in and out of Delaney Hall, and that while post people outside cooperated, “a limited number did not comply with repeated requests to clear a safe passage for the vehicles and took dangerous action.”
Friday afternoon, Davenport had said state police would take over public safety operations from ICE outside Delaney Hall, where for more than a week protesters have demonstrated, frequently clashed with ICE agents and sought to block vehicles that might be used to transfer detainees amid a hunger and labor strike. Immigrant advocate groups and detainees in multiple open letters have said they’re striking over poor conditions including food with worms in it, squalid facilities, and limited access to healthcare and legal assistance. The Department of Homeland Security and private contractor Geo Group, which runs the facility, have repeatedly denied those claims.
Sherrill, on Friday, had said the state police takeover of the site was meant to deescalate tensions amid the protests, where more than a dozen people have been arrested and ICE agents have repeatedly pushed protesters back, struck protesters with batons and deployed tear gas. The Department of Justice said late Friday it had arrested a man it accused of kicking one federal officer and biting two others.
”We all need to do everything we can to cool things down now,” Sherrill said at a press conference Friday to announce the plan. “I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.”
Photos by Getty Images as well as photos and videos posted to social media late Friday show lines of state police with riot shields and others on horseback moving protesters on Doremus Avenue, outside the immigration facility.
An ice vehicle is seen with its windshield smashed and a concrete block atop outside Delaney Hall Friday night.
“They have riot shields, they have flashbangs, they are using mounted police,” Kathy O’Leary, the New Jersey coordinator for the Catholic advocacy group Pax Christi, said in a voicemail to Gothamist. “This is completely contrary to everything every conversation that I’ve had with the AG’s office, and I’ve had multiple conversations with them.”
Some Getty Images photos show the windshield of an ICE vehicle smashed, with a paving stone atop it. Others show conservative influencer Cam Higby spraying pepper spray at protestors amid a confrontation outside the center. On X, he posted videos of protesters moving barricades into the street and using concrete to block vehicles, and claimed he’d “cold cocked” a person who took his phone before other protesters grabbed it and smashed his equipment.
The Department of Homeland Security had repeatedly criticized state and local police for remaining largely uninvolved with managing the crowds outside of Delaney Hall throughout the week. Mayor Ras Baraka — who was arrested at Delaney Hall last year on later-dropped charges of tresspassing, after joining members of Congress inside for an oversight visit — told Gothamist this week the federal government’s “calls were for us to come and move people.
“That's their jurisdiction. They created that so they have to move people,” he said this week. We're not gonna engage and get our police officers hurt.”
But by Thursday night, some state police vehicles had begun directing traffic nearby. Officials said that was after an incident Wednesday in which one was struck by a vehicle. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin Friday called the state police involvement a "win for law and order" on social media, saying that until then Sherrill had refused to “allow State Police to assist ICE law enforcement against violent anti-ICE rioters.”
A police sign outside Delaney Hall Friday night
In a statement Saturday morning, Sherrill said New Jersey State Police had become involved because “an increased ICE surge in the area outside of Delaney Hall is a threat to public safety. We know that lives would be at risk were that to happen. And I will not accept that risk. “
"That is why last night, the New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response Team acted to secure the area outside of Delaney Hall. This was absolutely necessary to protect public safety, and avoid escalation from ICE,” she said. “As Americans, we have a right to protest — and we will continue to ensure New Jersey residents can peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights.”
She urged anyone continuing to protest to do so peacefully.
“We need to focus on advocating for better conditions for the detainees, for their families, and ultimately, for the closure of Delaney Hall,” she said.
The AG’s office referred Gothamist to Davenport’s statement Saturday morning, and did not say how long State Police would keep the area in front of Delaney Hall clear or whether demonstrations would be able to take place Saturday. Flyers distributed widely online this week invited a MAGA movement demonstration to take place Saturday morning.
The No ICE in North Jersey Alliance, a coalition of community and civil rights groups, said in a statement Friday night that the establishment of “protected protest” zones bars the public from witnessing and providing video evidence of detainees being transferred from Delaney Hall — which immigrant groups contend is retribution for the hunger strike — and of violence by ICE agents. The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied transfers are used for retaliation, or that any hunger strike is taking place.
“We need to be focused not only on the protest outside Delaney Hall, but the unlawful action taking place inside Delaney Hall, which remains the reason for the protest,” William Angus, the alliance’s cofounder said. “The strike is now an almost unanimous work strike.
— Includes reporting by Michael Warren. This is a developing story and may be updated.
