New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill took call after call Wednesday night from people who told her state police had been overly aggressive in violent clashes with protesters outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center this weekend.
Callers accused state police of attacking protesters without provocation as they dialed into “Ask Governor Sherrill,” an hourlong interview and call-in show WNYC produces in partnership with WHYY and WBGO. Referencing videos and their own personal accounts from the site, they described state police in riot gear charging toward protesters, or herding demonstrators in the direction of ICE agents who pelted them with rubber bullets.
One caller who identified themselves as Pia from Pitman said they’d spent days with the crowd protesting Delaney Hall, where detainees allege they’re subjected to rotten food, squalid conditions and limited access to healthcare. The caller said she was “personally a victim of brutality” and asked Sherrill: “Why did you brutalize your constituents, nonviolent protesters who are only trying to uplift the demands of the detainees and then publicly lie about what happened?”
“I’m sorry that that happened to you, and certainly if there were incidents like that, the attorney general will be looking into that,” Sherrill said in response. “I’ve certainly wanted to be as open and accountable as possible.”
Sherrill’s administration has said most protesters conducted themselves peacefully outside Delaney Hall, but that state police encountered some who threw projectiles, set off fireworks and moved aggressively toward officers, prompting a more aggressive response.
Throughout the show, Sherrill repeated the reasoning she’s given over the last several days for sending state police to the scene: to prevent an escalation from ICE, after a week of violent clashes between federal agents and demonstrators, including some who sought to block vehicles they believed were transferring detainees out as retaliation for a hunger strike.
“We saw ICE troops beating people with batons, even on the ground, and we knew what was coming next,” Sherrill told WNYC’s Michael Hill.
Sherrill said officers were originally in “soft gear, and that was fine for the majority of the time.” But she said that because some demonstrators posed a threat to safety, state police responded with force.
More than 60 people were arrested Sunday night alone, amid operations that have drawn harsh public criticism, including from the ACLU of New Jersey and several immigrant advocates. Scores of videos posted to social media showed state troopers using tear gas and penning protesters in between lines of officers.
Much of the criticism has come from fellow Democrats, including from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who’s described state police tactics as “very aggressive, unnecessary, and in some instances unconstitutional,” and whose city’s police force has since taken over the scene, going two nights without serious clashes or arrests.
The governor stressed said on WNYC she was worried the Trump administration would surge immigration enforcement agents into New Jersey if something wasn’t done soon.
“We had ICE mounting a Minneapolis-style response to what was going on,” Sherrill said. “I refuse to let that happen.”
Conditions inside Delaney Hall
Sherrill said she wanted to help refocus public discourse on the treatment of detainees at Delaney Hall, the largest of two privately run ICE detention centers in New Jersey. The facility is a former halfway house that had been shuttered for years, but was reopened last year by the GEO Group, a Florida-based company that has a $1 billion federal contract to operate it for 15 years.
Immigrants detained in Delaney Hall have regularly complained of poor conditions, including in multiple open letters released through advocacy organizations. Their families and friends have complained that it is difficult to see detainees due to an opaque and burdensome visitation process.
Sherrill said she met with detainees' families on Tuesday.
“The whole thing, it's just, it’s heartbreaking,” Sherrill said. “And what’s most heartbreaking is that here we are as a country not treating people with basic dignity.”
The Department of Homeland Security and GEO Group have both repeatedly denied claims that detainees are mistreated.
Escalating demonstrations
Immigrant rights advocates and Democratic politicians at all levels of government, including Sherrill, have repeatedly called for Delaney Hall’s closure. People have been regularly protesting peacefully outside Delaney Hall since the facility reopened last year. Those messages became more urgent in May, after hundreds of detainees signed a public letter decrying conditions inside and civil rights violations in the immigration system.
The melees that marred recent days erupted at the start of Memorial Day weekend, after detainees launched a hunger and labor strike inside Delaney Hall.
Activists on Sunday of the holiday weekend said they believed ICE was trying to transfer out one detainee who was associated with the strike as a form of retaliation against him and his wife, who had led a rally of families outside. A chaotic scene took shape in front of Delaney Hall’s gates, as protesters attempted to block vans from leaving the facility.
It set up the first of multiple violent nights between protesters and ICE agents outside of the detention center. Last Friday night, after almost a week of federal agents confronting the crowds and mounting threats from the Trump administration, Sherrill arranged for the New Jersey State Police to take over crowd control.
Several callers Wednesday asked Sherrill to explain why state police appeared to become suddenly aggressive during times when ICE agents were making shift changes at Delaney Hall.
“Part of what was triggering ICE was not being able to get vehicles in and out of the facility,” Sherrill said. “I was really determined to keep [ICE] behind that gate. I did not want them to come out.”
On Saturday, Newark city officials set a curfew for the area around Delaney Hall and restricted access to the road the facility is on.
Sherrill said at the time the goal of sending in state troopers was to lower the temperature at the scene.
State police actions were slammed by groups on the left and cheered by Trump administration officials. The uproar peaked Sunday night, after troopers arrested 61 people who had gathered at a police checkpoint half a mile from Delaney Hall.
Newark police took command of the situation Monday afternoon, and lifted the curfew on Tuesday night. Both evenings avoided violence or arrests.
What power does the state have?
Sherrill had also been criticized by advocates who said she failed to leverage state power to address the conditions inside Delaney Hall, or get the facility shut down.
When detainees launched their hunger strike, one of their demands was that Sherrill visit them inside Delaney Hall to see conditions herself. Sherrill did attempt to visit days after the strike began, but she was denied entry. The governor does not have the authority to enter the detention center at her own will, unlike members of Congress, who by law are allowed to make scheduled or unannounced oversight visits.
Sherrill said she had submitted another request to visit on Wednesday.
State health officials have tried to inspect conditions inside Delaney Hall. The inspectors were denied entry last Wednesday; they were allowed in Thursday, but only given access to food service areas.
The Sherrill administration has since filed a state lawsuit seeking a court order for a complete health inspection of the detention center. Sherrill said on “Ask Governor Sherrill” she believed an accounting of conditions inside from state health officials would be important to the public understanding. She accused federal officials and the GEO Group of retaliating against detainees and their families for speaking out on the conditions they face, allegations ICE and the GEO Group have denied.
“Having a health inspector go in there and then report out on some of this stuff, I think, is really powerful,” Sherrill said. “I think going in there as a state entity to get those stories and hold them accountable is really powerful.”
The governor did not, though, provide an explanation of what action could be taken if health inspectors find violations.
Sherrill was able to tout a win: The recent releases of pregnant women and teenage girls who had been detained at Delaney Hall.
The release of these women and other vulnerable people had been a core demand of striking detainees. Sherrill said the releases were the result of public pressure brought by families, advocates and the Congressional democrats who have been a constant presence at Delaney Hall in recent weeks.
“This was a group effort with advocates and families and bringing attention,” Sherrill said.
Gothamist and WNYC are both produced by New York Public Radio.
