Hundreds of immigrant men at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, began a hunger and labor strike on Friday morning, according to local immigrant advocates and a spouse of an organizer being held inside the facility.
The strike spans multiple units at the detention center and began around 4 a.m. on Friday, according to Gabriela Soto, 28, who said her husband Martin Soto, a Peruvian immigrant, has been detained at Delaney Hall for about five months.
The detainees’ demands are to “close Delaney Hall and free every person in there,” Gabriela Soto said. Immigrant advocates with a coalition called Eyes on ICE are planning to stage an around-the-clock protest outside the site while the hunger and labor strike continues, according to Gabriela Soto and Kathy O’Leary, a New Jersey coordinator of Pax Christi, an international Catholic peace movement.
The detainees on strike are also demanding that Gov. Mikie Sherrill and U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, all New Jersey Democrats, visit the Delaney Hall detention center and speak with the detainees inside, according to O’Leary. Messages to Booker and Sherrill's offices were not immediately returned Friday afternoon.
“There must be immediate action taken to improve conditions. I’ve long been concerned about conditions at Delaney Hall, but to see food and access to fresh air seemingly weaponized in retaliation for oversight visits and community concern is a new low for GEO Group,” Kim said in a statement sent Friday evening.
The strike comes after nearly 300 Delaney Hall detainees signed an open letter earlier this month complaining of being “tortured physically and psychologically” with substandard food and being denied adequate access to healthcare and legal representation.
In an emailed statement, an unnamed spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied the existence of a hunger strike at Delaney Hall. ICE policy only considers a lapse in eating to be a hunger strike after a detainee has not eaten for 72 hours, and guards are instructed to refer hunger strikers to medical staff.
The spokesperson added that all detainees are provided with three meals per day, including during hunger strikes, along with clean water, linens, toiletries, and access to phones and medical care.
An ICE spokesperson previously said detainees are afforded full due process, and dismissed complaints about the immigration justice system as misinformation spread by activists to undermine federal authorities.
Christopher Ferreira, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, which is contracted to run the facility, referred questions to ICE. In a previous statement, Ferreira said the facility complies with all ICE requirements.
He added that the company provides “around-the-clock access to medical care, legal and family visitation, general and legal libraries, and meals that can meet the needs of religious and specialty diets.
He charged that the allegations were "politically motivated" by outside groups opposed to ICE.
This story was updated with additional information.
