More than 300 people detained inside Newark, New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center are on a work and hunger strike, demanding that Gov. Mikie Sherrill visit the facility and meet with them.
For months, immigrants detained inside the facility have drawn attention to Delaney’s inhumane conditions. They officially launched their strike on May 22, 2026, calling for freedom for everyone detained in the facility and especially the immediate release of vulnerable people, including children, the elderly, and those with serious medical conditions.
Loved ones and community members of those detained inside have rallied in support of the strike. They are being met with violence from federal agents.
“These people don’t know each other. They’ve never met each other a day in their lives. And this is one thing they can all agree on,” said one woman outside the facility on May 26. She requested anonymity out of fear that speaking with the media would provoke retaliation against her husband, who is detained at Delaney Hall and participating in the strike.
Officials have cut off visitation at the facility. The woman told Prism that while it’s difficult not to be able to see her husband, she’s proud of him for taking a stand. “It makes me happy in the sense that he’s choosing to do the right thing. Nobody wants to not eat, but everyone is doing it for a purpose, and he’s part of that purpose,” she said.
Though she’s anxious for visitation to be reinstated, she’s not in favor of those inside ending the strike. “We’re not gonna fold because they’re being assholes,” she said. “If we do fold and they still decide to not bring visitation back, it’s like, damn, we folded for nothing.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it suspended visitation due to protests outside, but elected officials, activists, and family members assert it is retaliation for the strike.
“It’s bullshit,” said Rep. Rob Menendez, D-N.J., of the suspension on visitation. The congressman spoke to Prism after he visited Delaney Hall on May 26. “There’s no security threat here. There’s no risk.”
“They were using it as a justification to prevent us from going in,” he continued, referring to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the GEO Group, the private prison company that runs Delaney, “because they want to make that the story, because they know the story inside there is so toxic to the story they’re trying to sell to the American people.”
Immigrants detained inside Delaney say they have found live worms in their food; they’re living in inhumane, overcrowded conditions; and they are being denied due process as part of an effort from ICE to make them self-deport.
Many of those detained inside the facility were abruptly plucked from their daily lives. This includes strike leader Martin Soto, who was returning home with a pack of diapers when ICE agents surrounded and disappeared him. A crowdfunding campaign created to support his family has exceeded $40,000, with other fundraisers for detained immigrants raising a few thousand dollars.
Outside the facility, two distinct fronts in the fight against the government’s mass deportation agenda are in full swing: Protesters confronting ICE at the south entrance to Delaney in chaotic scenes now filling news reports and people’s social media feeds. Many of those outside the facility are committed to an around-the-clock presence to impede vehicles from entering and exiting the facility. On May 24, DHS agents simply swept demonstrators out of the way to allow vehicles to enter and exit. Later that day, agents shifted to using batons, as well as sporadically using pepper bullet guns, and steadily using large canisters of pepper spray.
The second front is about 100 feet away and a different universe. People calmly sit in chairs under a tree’s shade chatting with each other, take phone calls with their loved ones locked up inside, and pick through a steady flow of meal trays and snacks provided by supporters. Volunteers buzz around constantly tidying up, rearranging the setup, breaking down boxes, and restocking piles of snacks. A white event tent that was earlier accessible to everyone is now a private zone reserved for the loved ones of those detained inside. The private gathering space emerged following the strike, and as there was a surge in support and media.
“It’s great to have a support system to know that I’m not alone in this,” said the wife of the man detained inside Delaney, noting how helpful the resources have been both in her personal life and outside the detention center she visits daily since the strike began. “Just being here alone, you feel the energy. That’s why I’m still here.”
Minnie, 18, who is only using her first name for safety reasons, said she’s been participating in protests for the last two years, but the night of May 25 at Delaney was her first time joining an overnight protest.
“I am planning to get lit as a DJ,” she told Prism between rounds of heckling guards with GEO Group. She also put her energy toward hyping people up with liberatory chants late into the night. By the next morning, she was still buoyantly heckling at the south entrance littered with ICE agents who arrived in dramatic fashion around 6:30 a.m., led by a bearcat tank and pepper bullet guns to dismantle a barricade created overnight.
“I have to be here,” Minnie said. “I have to be here to make sure that at least I have done something, at least for my own conscience so I can sleep at night.”
ICE has escalated violence toward people camped outside in recent days. Media descended on the scene after agents pepper-sprayed Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J.
Organizers and volunteers have worked around the clock to bolster their operating infrastructure, which has been tested under the weight of hundreds of activists and supporters cycling through. The strain has at times caused friction between volunteer groups. One organizer who wanted to move a canopy closer to where activists were facing off with agents suggested ending protests to regain visitation rights, which prompted a brief argument about tactics and strategy. Despite those frustrations, many are diligent about returning focus to the hunger strike and the demands of the immigrants detained inside Delaney.
“[The people inside] did their part. They’re on hunger strike and that’s why we came. We’re here because [detained immigrants] are telling us to pay attention to them,” said an organizer who asked not to be named for safety reasons.
It was 1:30 a.m. when she spoke to Prism; she had been on the ground every day since the strike began. She apologized for tripping on her words, noting her tiredness, before breaking into a wide smile reflecting on the last few days since the strike launched.
“It’s hard. It’s messy. But at the same time, through this mess, there’s a lot of beauty,” she said. “That’s what we keep center. There’s a lot of love, a lot of joy, and community.”
Source: Prism
Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel