New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) was turned away from the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark on Monday, as detainees inside staged a hunger strike and protesters outside clashed with ICE officers over the weekend. Sherrill, joined by several fellow Democrats, said the denial of entry raised “serious questions about what they are trying to hide from public view.”
The governor’s visit came after demonstrators reported being pepper-sprayed by ICE personnel on Sunday, according to local news reports. Sherrill, along with U.S. Senator Andy Kim and Representatives Rob Menendez Jr., Nellie Pou, and LaMonica McIver, met with protesters outside the facility after being blocked from entering. The lawmakers had arrived Sunday night for what they described as an unannounced oversight inspection.
“I have long opposed private detention facilities and will continue to advocate for the closure of Delaney Hall and against any expansion of mass detention facilities in New Jersey, like the proposed facility in Roxbury,” Sherrill said in a statement. “I came today to hear from families and advocates, and what I heard from them was heartbreaking.”
The standoff at Delaney Hall began Friday, when organizer Gabriela Soto arrived at the detention center to support a hunger and work strike launched by roughly 300 detainees. The detainees are protesting conditions inside the facility and demanding the release of elderly and younger detainees, as well as those with medical issues. Soto told The City that her husband, detained since February, was locked in a cell for eight hours while officers interrogated him.
“The people inside Delaney Hall are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and members of our community,” Soto said. “In New Jersey, we believe in the rule of law and that everyone deserves to be treated with basic dignity. We have a duty to safeguard the rights, health, and well-being of everyone within our borders.”
Menendez also reported being denied entry. “I was told that I would be able to go inside at 8 a.m., but ICE continues to deny entry,” he wrote on social media Monday morning. Pou, Kim, and McIver each posted photos of themselves with protesters and called for the facility’s closure. The Hill has reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The incident adds to growing scrutiny of immigration detention conditions under the Trump administration. A recent investigation into detention crisis revealed overcrowding and deaths across ICE facilities. Separately, McIver has introduced legislation to mandate ICE access for lawmakers, even as she faces her own legal challenges.
Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced Sunday he would also visit the facility. “Immigrants at Delaney Hall are on a hunger strike because they are fighting for their human rights,” Booker wrote on X. “The conditions there are deplorable… Enough is enough — not in New Jersey, not anywhere.”
