New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Saturday blamed out-of-state agitators for clashes that erupted between protesters and local law enforcement outside the Delaney Detention Center in Newark.
Sherrill said five of the six people arrested Friday night in clashes outside the detention center for immigrants were not New Jersey residents. State police said the five out-of-staters were from New York and Pennsylvania.
“To the people coming from out of state to create chaos and dangerous situations: You should not be here,” Sherrill said at a Saturday afternoon press conference. “You are not helping the people detained at Delaney Hall, you are not helping detainee families and you are certainly not keeping New Jersey safe.”
Demonstrations early Saturday outside Delaney Hall drew national extremist groups, but were mostly calm. Sherrill had urged protesters, both supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement and opposing ICE, to "bring the temperature down.”
It was a different story on Friday night.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said state police “temporarily cleared” the area in front of the Delaney Hall after protesters deployed fireworks and threw gas canisters at law enforcement — just hours after Sherrill announced state police would establish a “peaceful protest zone” and take over crowd control from ICE.
Hours later, on Saturday morning, groups both protesting and supporting ICE were back in front of the center, with barricades eventually erected to block them from getting to the area of Doremus Avenue closest to the front of Delaney Hall. State police and officers from multiple local jurisdictions were on site, with a row of police holding shields along the side of the barricade closer to the Delaney Hall. Newark police drove through occasionally on motorcycles. ICE agents mostly stayed close to the building.
Davenport said in a statement posted to social media that state police had been seeking to ensure safe passage of vehicles transporting people in and out of Delaney Hall Friday night, and that while most people outside cooperated, “a limited number did not comply with repeated requests to clear a safe passage for the vehicles and took dangerous action.”
For more than a week protesters have demonstrated, frequently clashing with ICE agents and sought to block vehicles that might be used to transfer detainees amid an ongoing 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.
An ice vehicle is seen with its windshield smashed and a concrete block atop outside Delaney Hall Friday night.
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 that it had arrested a man it accused of kicking one federal officer and biting two others.
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. Some 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.
A police sign outside Delaney Hall Friday night
“It was bizarre. I didn't understand what was going on,” Kathy O’Leary, the New Jersey coordinator for the Catholic advocacy group Pax Christi and a leader of the Eyes on ICE coalition, told Gothamist Saturday at Delaney Hall Saturday morning. She’d been present for the commotion Friday. “I had been on the phone with a representative from the AG's office, like, 15 minutes before, and they were like, "Don't worry … [the state police are] just gonna help ICE facilitate the shift change."
She said that minutes later, a state police car was coming down the road, telling protesters that they would have to vacate.
“Up until the point when we saw the riot police with their riot shields, I thought we were gonna be okay based on all the representations I had gotten from legislators for a couple of days now,” she said.
Norma Bowe, a nurse who described being shoved to the ground by ICE during a demonstration earlier this week, was back out at Delaney Hall Saturday morning.
“I thought [the state police presence] was going to be a good thing,” she said. “I was trusting Mikie Sherrill to think about the security of us New Jerseyans. But as you can see, it's actually escalated the situation.”
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 trespassing, 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” but that “we're not gonna engage and get our police officers hurt.”
A line of State Police stand in front of Delaney Hall in Newark Saturday morning, with groups of protesters cordoned off behind barricades.
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.”
David Broderick, who’d come to protest against Delaney Hall detention Saturday, hadn’t been present for the altercations Friday night. But he said it would be wrong to conflate the actions of State Police to those of ICE in clashes outside the center.
“I mean, if there were excesses in the state police, we know that there are remedies and that will be corrected,” he said. “ Whereas with ICE, I think the excesses are the message.”
John Butler, political director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said in a statement Saturday the state police response had been an “an unnecessary response to free speech and the right to peaceful protest.”
“New Jersey’s response must prioritize the safety and well-being of people – not mimic the dangerous and overly militarized tactics of the federal government,” he said.
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.”
This story was updated with additional comment and information.
A group of anti-ICE protesters lines up on Doremus Avenue outside Delaney Hall on Saturday, before police cordoned demonstrators off behind barricades.
"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.”
Sherill 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.
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 could bar 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.
ICE had not returned messages seeking comment Saturday morning.
— Includes reporting by Michael Warren.
A group of pro-ICE protesters raises a flag bearing White House border czar Tom Homan's name Saturday.
