Dems say ICE is retaliating against hunger striking detainees as protesters swarm detention facility

Source: The Independent

Tuesday 26 May 2026 17:12 EDT


Dozens of protesters have spent days surrounding the gates of an immigration detention center where detainees are on hunger strike to protest what they have described as unconstitutional and inhumane conditions inside.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in military gear with heavily armored police trucks remain in a standoff with protesters outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey, where agents have torn down makeshift barriers that protesters used to block vehicles from transferring detainees after clashes over Memorial Day weekend.

Rep. Rob Menendez performed an oversight visit inside the facility on Tuesday, one day after federal agents hit Sen. Andy Kim with chemical agents and blocked the state’s governor Mikie Sherrill from entering. Menendez said the strike is still ongoing — conditions have not improved, medical care is “non-existent,” and Donald Trump’s administration appears to be retaliating against detainees by denying them visitations, he told reporters.

“They want the focus, for all these cameras and the right-wing media, to be what’s happening outside here, to make that the story, because they don’t want the story to be about the individuals inside,” Menendez said. “They’re mothers, they’re fathers, they’re people who are married to U.S. citizens, people who have U.S. citizen children, people who are pregnant — that’s who’s inside.”

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/delaney-hall-ice-protest-hunger-strike-b2983980.html