Guards at a <\/span>New Jersey immigrant detention center are retaliating against detainees for nonviolent protests over poor conditions, including a hunger and labor strike, according to relatives and members of Congress.<\/p>\n Staff at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s Delaney Hall Detention Facility \u2014 a Newark immigration jail operated by the private prison<\/a> giant GEO Group<\/a> \u2014 took steps to crack down on the strikes, including attacking immigration detainees with pepper spray and batons, transferring protest leaders to other facilities, and shutting down family visitation, advocates and relatives of detainees told The Intercept.<\/p>\n \u201cDetainees told me about scalding hot showers that have led to burns and blisters; worms in food; and being denied medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n One woman who spoke with her nephew inside Delaney Hall told The Intercept that she was told negotiations were set to take place between guards and striking inmates \u2014 but instead, her nephew reported, guards attacked the detainees with pepper spray.<\/p>\n \u201cMy nephew can\u2019t see right now because he was hit on the head with a baton,\u201d said the woman, who requested anonymity for fear of further retaliation against her nephew. \u201cPrison operators told my nephew and the others on the hunger strike that ICE was going to negotiate on Thursday. They got hit instead.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of Congress from New Jersey and New York made repeated visits to inspect the facility this week. On Wednesday, New York Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler emerged from Delaney Hall looking deeply shaken and spoke of hearing about miserable conditions inside with no doctor onsite.<\/p>\n \u201cDetainees told me about scalding hot showers that have led to burns and blisters; worms in food; and being denied medical care, visitation rights, and time outdoors,\u201d Goldman told The Intercept. \u201cMany of them believed that this treatment is in retribution for the ongoing hunger strike, which they have initiated to bring attention to the horrific conditions they are enduring despite having committed no serious crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The alleged retaliation against detainees matches a long-standing pattern, according to a 2021 report<\/a> from the American Civil Liberties Union, which detailed systematic abuses carried out against hunger strikers at dozens of facilities across 24 states.<\/p>\n In a post<\/a> to X on Thursday, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he was barred from visiting the unit on which the physical abuses were alleged to have taken place, but said he spoke with detainees on another unit who reported several of their fellows being taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in attacks by guards.<\/p>\n In a statement to The Intercept, GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira confirmed the use of chemical agents against detainees on Thursday as part of a \u201cphysical altercation involving detainees at Delaney Hall,\u201d but did not address questions about the attacks on detainees coming as retaliation.<\/p>\n \u201cIn accordance with established policies and protocols approved by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,\u201d Ferreira said, \u201cstaff implemented appropriate response and control measures to safely resolve the situation, including the limited use of chemical agents.\u201d<\/p>\n \n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The accusations came amid ongoing protests outside the facility, at which federal agents have repeatedly attacked demonstrators, including family members of those inside, with pepper spray and batons. (ICE referred a request for comment its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond.)<\/p>\n For nearly a week, family members have been denied visitation, and protesters have set up a tent outside Delaney Hall to provide support for those who had hoped to visit their loved ones inside.<\/p>\n \u201cRelatives of detainees haven\u2019t been let in since Saturday,\u201d said Ana Paola Pazmino, the director of Resistencia en Acci\u00f3n NJ, a local grassroots group. \u201cThis is despite the fact that DHS has said there has been no hunger strike. They are liars.\u201d<\/p>\n The hunger and labor strikes began last week when detainees began refusing food and stopped showing up for their jobs to protest their poor conditions inside the facility. Among their demands are the release of elderly and very young detainees and those with serious medical conditions.<\/p>\n In response to a call from one detainee leader\u2019s wife for solidarity demonstrations, protests began gathering outside the facility on May 21, with demonstrators showing up virtually around the clock every day since, despite attacks by armed ICE agents.<\/p>\n Andre Beresford Burger, an organizer with the group Movimiento Cosecha, told The Intercept on Thursday that he had been pepper-sprayed by ICE agents but remained undeterred.<\/p>\n \u201cIf ICE agents are willing to storm into a crowd and brutalize people on camera and in front of the press,\u201d he said, \u201cwhat does this say about what they\u2019re doing to people inside immigration detention, away from the cameras?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf ICE agents are willing to storm into a crowd and brutalize people on camera, what does this say about what they\u2019re doing to people inside?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Deploring the conditions, members of Congress called for Delaney Hall to be closed.<\/p>\n\n
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