ICE Pepper-Sprayed, Beat Detainees for Protesting “Horrific Conditions” In Delaney Hall Jail |
Special Investigations
Press Freedom Defense Fund
ICE Pepper-Sprayed, Beat Detainees for Protesting “Horrific Conditions” In Delaney Hall Jail
Detainees told a visiting member of Congress that the attacks were “retribution for the ongoing hunger strike.”
Guards at a New Jersey immigrant detention center are retaliating against detainees for nonviolent protests over poor conditions, including a hunger and labor strike, according to relatives and members of Congress.
Staff at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Delaney Hall Detention Facility — a Newark immigration jail operated by the private prison giant GEO Group — took steps to crack down on the strikes, including attacking immigration detainees with pepper spray and batons, transferring protest leaders to other facilities, and shutting down family visitation, advocates and relatives of detainees told The Intercept.
“Detainees told me about scalding hot showers that have led to burns and blisters; worms in food; and being denied medical care.”
“Detainees told me about scalding hot showers that have led to burns and blisters; worms in food; and being denied medical care.”
One woman who spoke with her nephew inside Delaney Hall told The Intercept that she was told negotiations were set to take place between guards and striking inmates — but instead, her nephew reported, guards attacked the detainees with pepper spray.
“My nephew can’t see right now because he was hit on the head with a baton,” said the woman, who requested anonymity for fear of further retaliation against her nephew. “Prison operators told my nephew and the others on the hunger strike that ICE was going to negotiate on Thursday. They got hit instead.”
Members of Congress from New Jersey and New York made repeated visits to inspect the facility this week. On Wednesday, New York Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler emerged from Delaney Hall looking deeply shaken and spoke of hearing about miserable conditions inside with no doctor onsite.
“Detainees told me about scalding hot showers that have led to burns and blisters; worms in food; and being denied medical care, visitation rights, and time outdoors,” Goldman told The Intercept. “Many of them believed that this treatment is in retribution for the ongoing hunger strike, which they have initiated to bring attention to the horrific conditions they are enduring despite having committed no serious crimes.”
The alleged retaliation against detainees matches a long-standing pattern, according to a 2021 report from the American Civil Liberties Union, which detailed systematic abuses carried out against hunger strikers at dozens of facilities across 24 states.
In a post to X on Thursday, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he was barred from visiting the unit on which the physical abuses were alleged to have taken place, but said he spoke with detainees on another unit who........