Newark Mayor Ras Baraka declared a curfew around the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center early Sunday amid clashes between protesters opposing the conditions inside, armed ICE agents, and pro-ICE demonstrators who arrived over the weekend to stage a counter-protest.
“Due to the escalating situation at Delaney Hall and the increasing need for police intervention, immediate action is required to protect public safety,” Baraka said in a statement Sunday. “Multiple individuals have already been arrested and found in possession of weapons, underscoring the seriousness of the threat. To ensure the safety and well-being of all residents, a mandatory curfew for a half-mile area surrounding Delaney Hall is being implemented, effective immediately.”
The curfew went into effect at midnight Sunday, closing adjacent Doremus Ave. to pedestrians and restricting vehicle access to those with official business in the area, he said.
A day earlier, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill called for calm and said the New Jersey State Police would be taking over from ICE, whose agents would withdraw. She directed police to cordon off protest zones to put a lid on the chaos.
But those efforts met with resistance, as Newark and state police used riot shields and in some cases horses as they moved in to break up the crowd.
AP Photo/Andres Kudacki
Police try to hold the line as protesters push the fences outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during a protest on Saturday. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
“Last night, masked individuals at Delaney Hall attacked the barrier in the protected protest area and began aggressive and dangerous actions against Newark and New Jersey State Police (NJSP), including throwing projectiles, utilizing the barriers as weapons, and lighting tires on fire in the street,” Sherrill said Sunday. “These actions put both peaceful protestors and law enforcement in danger.”
The new measures capped a week that escalated into violence as ICE agents pepper-sprayed and tased protesters, who were there to support a hunger strike undertaken by 300 detainees over inhumane conditions.
“We really feel like adding ICE to this situation has made things less safe, and we’ve seen a surge now in ICE agents coming into the region, which has given us a great deal of concern,” Sherrill said at a press conference Saturday. “So right now we are working to make sure we get ICE out of the situation, establish peaceful areas for protesters,” and make sure to “give (ICE) no pretext for coming in here.”
AP Photo/Andres Kudacki
Mounted New Jersey State Police troopers move toward protesters near the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during a protest on Saturday. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
She also blamed out-of-state “agitators” for turning up the heat, noting that five of several protesters who had been arrested were not from New Jersey. Police said they were from New York and Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on X Sunday that the area around Delaney Hall had been “secured,” adding, “WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed Sherrill refused his requests to call in state and local police for a week. He and other federal officials vociferously deny claims detainees are subject to inhumane conditions including being denied timely and proper medical care and that their food has contained live worms.
With News Wire Services
