US senator hit with pepper spray during clash at ICE facility in New Jersey
A protest outside a New Jersey immigration detention facility turned chaotic Monday after federal agents fired pepper balls into a crowd, and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., was caught in the middle of it.
The confrontation happened outside Newark’s Delaney Hall detention facility, where protests, labor actions and hunger strikes have continued for weeks.
Kim later appeared in a video getting his eyes flushed after being exposed during the clash.
“What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country,” Kim told NJ.com afterward. “It’s sad, it’s a sad day.”
Conditions at the center of protests
Politicians and protesters have been demanding greater oversight of the privately run, 1,000-bed ICE facility following months of allegations surrounding conditions inside.
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Delaney Hall had been closed since 2017 before the Trump administration awarded GEO Group a 15-year, $1 billion contract to reopen the facility in February 2025.
Last week, roughly 300 detainees began a hunger and labor strike, alleging overcrowding, spoiled food and poor living conditions.
“The conditions are brutal,” Selenia Destefani, a managing attorney and CEO of Nova Law Group, which represents multiple people in the facility, told CNN. “People just sleep on the floor – overcrowded rooms, cold showers, no food, extremely cold in the cells with no blankets. Not sound conditions to live in.”
Attorneys with the firm also said detainees with medical conditions aren’t receiving the care and medication they need.
A group of New Jersey Democrats, including Kim, U.S. Sen. Frank Pallone and U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou, toured the facility over the weekend after learning of the strike.
“The conditions are absolutely outrageous,” Pallone said in a post on social media after the visit. “This place needs to be closed down.”
In his own post thread, Kim described seeing a “carton with the milk inside congealed solid” and said he spoke to a mother who told him she was allowed only limited time with her four-month-old child.
DHS rejects allegations
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security disputed the allegations and defending conditions inside the facility.
“All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the department said.
“Certified dieticians evaluate meals. In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
The department also said detainees receive comprehensive medical care.
Previous arrest still loom over protests
The facility has already become the focus of legal and political fights.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., were arrested during a protest outside Delaney Hall in May after demonstrations escalated.
Trespassing charges against Baraka were later dropped. McIver was later indicted by the Department of Justice on charges of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer and has denied wrongdoing.
She is scheduled to appear before a judge on June 23 as she appeals the case against her. If convicted, she faces up to 17 years in prison.
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