Outrage Mounts at Assaults of Journalists and Hunger Strikers at Delaney Hall 

On Friday, a coalition of over a dozen press freedom groups condemned the May 31 arrests of at least three journalists covering the protests at Delaney Hall immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey, calling for their charges to be dropped.

Photojournalists covering the protests say they have been deliberately targeted for assault by ICE agents and police — with at least 42 assaults and five instances of officers damaging journalists’ equipment, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented brutality against journalists at Delaney Hall since the protests began on May 22, detailing numerous cases of officers pushing members of the press, burning them with chemical irritants and smoke grenades, spraying them with teargas, and striking them with batons.

This documentation gives lie to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s (D) claim that the protests have become violent due to “outsiders.”

Many of these assaults occurred last Sunday night, when police surrounded protesters outside of Delaney Hall and arrested at least 46 people after the mayor of Newark had instituted a curfew. But journalists were exempt from the curfew.

In that incident, state police demanded that the press leave. Protesters, in turn, chanted “press don’t leave.”

When an officer reported over his radio that the press would not go far enough away, he was told, “If they refuse to move, push them back yourselves.”

The three who remained with the group were arrested, and one was injured and taken to a hospital.

“Protesters were literally pleading for press to remain. Police had other ideas and kept trying to chase journalists away,” said Adam Rose, deputy director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation. “Shockingly, at least three of those arrested ended up in the hospital. Do I really need to explain why press cameras needed to be rolling?”

There have also been multiple reports of police officers stealing journalists’ equipment while at Delaney Hall. In one instance, a police officer was charged Thursday after a photojournalist tracked her camera bag – containing roughly $10,000 worth of equipment – to the home of a New Jersey police officer.

Meanwhile, people imprisoned inside Delaney Hall have been waging a labor and hunger strike against the inhumane conditions inside the jail for the past two weeks. On Sunday, striking detainees released a letter detailing the retaliation they’ve faced.

“Since the strike began, we have been subjected to reprisals, discrimination, mockery, mistreatment, and threats, mainly from ‘GEO’ staff,” they wrote in a handwritten letter that has been translated from Spanish. GEO Group is a private prison company that manages Delaney Hall.

“They constantly threaten to deport us, transfer us to punishment units, and move us from one detention center to another” and “tell us that we have no rights here,” the letter goes on.

The letter describes how, at the start of the strike, GEO Group administrators asked to speak with the leaders of the strike. “They were upset when we told them there was no leader and that the strike was a collective effort,” the letter says.

When the administrators tried to transfer one of the detainees they accused of leading the strike, detainees attempted to “peacefully block[sic] their path” so that he could not be moved. In response, they were beaten, pepper sprayed, and attacked by ICE agents, “causing many people to be rushed to the hospital.”

“We deserve to be free and to complete the process at home with our families,” the letter-writers went on, adding that they are “fathers and mothers with no criminal record and we have contributed to this beautiful country.”

Protesters have expressed outrage at Sherrill for failing to address the conditions of those being detained, and for replacing ICE with state police outside of Delaney.

“The first ten days of the hunger strike were a real test for Mikie Sherrill,” which she “failed, by imposing state violence on media and protesters,” Isaac Jimenez, secretary of the Union of Rutgers Administrators (URA-AFT), who has been involved in labor organizing to support Delaney Hall detainees, told Truthout.

On Thursday, likely due to the continuation of the hunger strike and protests, Sherrill announced a $12 million increase in funding for New Jersey’s Detention Deportation Defense Initiative, providing free legal representation.

“This was a demand from the movement, and the hunger strikers pushed it over the edge into the finish line,” Jimenez said. “The fact that the governor is giving it the OK now is a real testament to the effectiveness of a hunger strike and the hunger strikers.”

Ultimately, however, the protesters and detainees are still demanding freedom for those in Delaney Hall and the closure of the immigration jail.