Guards inside an immigration detention center where detainees have been on a hunger and labor strike for nearly a week have reportedly beaten people and deployed tear gas in cells, according to advocates and family members.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were “violently beating the hunger strikers” at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey on Thursday, according to Make the Road New Jersey director Nedia Morsy.
“Someone will be killed if no one intervenes and shuts this down.”
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver and other Democratic members of Congress have also received reports from detainees’ families that agents were beating people inside the two-story facility, where detainees are nearing a seventh day of a hunger strike to protest what they allege are unconstitutional and inhumane conditions, including rotting food, due process violations, a lack of access to legal counsel and retaliation from ICE agents for their ongoing strike actions.
ICE and private prison contractor Geo Group, which operates the facility, said guard staff were responding to a fight among detainees. Ambulances were also seen at the facility.
“Unrest within Delaney Hall is directly related to its rampant inhumane conditions and the Trump administration’s refusal to dedicate appropriate resources for basic human needs like food and health care,” according to Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
Investigators with the state’s health department were also denied entry into the detention center on Thursday and were allowed to inspect “only a limited part of the facility,” according to Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
“New Jersey believes in the rule of law, will uphold the Constitution, and Delaney Hall should be closed down,” she said in a statement. “I am calling for ICE to immediately de-escalate the situation as I continue working to keep New Jersey residents safe.”
Sherrill and several congressional Democrats are demanding the facility’s immediate closure.
The 1,000-bed, two-story detention center opened May 1, 2025, and is operated by private prison contractor GEO Group. Donald Trump’s administration awarded the company a 15-year, $1 billion contract to run the facility.
Geo Group spokesperson Christopher V. Ferreira said in a statement to Gothamist that detention center staff “implemented appropriate response and control measures to safely resolve the situation, including the limited use of chemical agents.”
“The safety and well-being of those in our care and our staff is our top priority, and any such response is carried out in strict adherence to federal standards and comprehensive training,” he said.
Affected detainees “were promptly evaluated by on-site medical personnel and were cleared with no serious injuries,” according to Ferreira.
ICE agents in military gear with heavily armored police trucks continue to face off against protesters outside the facility, where demonstrators have rallied for days to support striking detainees inside.
Trump administration officials have denied that a strike is taking place and dismissed complaints from detainees, their families and protesters, whom the president has called “fake” and “paid.”
“These aren’t protesters. These people are fake. They’re all paid for,” Trump said Wednesday. “We run the finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type. … There’s nobody that runs a facility like we do.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed detainees are complaining over a lack of access to “ethnic food.”
“They’re refusing to eat because they want their ethnic food,” he said on Wednesday. “Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want … We’re giving them the calories they want. This isn’t Holiday Inn.”
