NYC Journalist Documents and Alleges Brutality Against Protesters by ICE at Delaney Hall

Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, has been a subject of controversial allegations for more than a year now. Protests have not ceased. Brenna Lip (@brennalip), an independent journalist from New York City, relayed the developments on site for the last two weeks.

Once a halfway house, Delaney Hall was reopened by The GEO Group, a private security company, as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged that the GEO Group was awarded by the Trump administration a $1 billion contract to provide 1,000 beds. over a 15-year period.

Allegations of abuse of protesters in Delaney Hall

“For the past two weeks, community members have gathered outside Delaney Hall to support the hundreds of immigrants detained inside, who’ve launched a labor and hunger strike,” Lip said. The detainees are allegedly protesting spoiled food, inadequate medical care, and inhumane living conditions. Lip further described Delaney Hall as a “concentration camp.” Because of the alleged abuse happening inside, external protesters have shown up to stand in solidarity with the detainees.

“What is described as ‘violent clashes’ in the news are agents of the state attacking protestors using batons, indiscriminately pepper spraying the crowd, throwing protestors into the road, and moving with such brutality that journalists and protestors in the crowd had been hospitalized,” she alleged. Her TikTok clip showed footage of what seems to be ICE agents roughly handling the protesters, just as Lip described.

Lip claimed that community members have formed “systems of care” outside Delaney Hall. A tent, which has been there for over a year, was designated to support detainees upon release. Moreover, Lip also stated that a medical tent has been set up with PPE supplies. These supplies are meant protect community members during protests.

The allegations are not new. Atty. Selenia Destefani told NBC News that her clients had allegedly been fed expired, wormy food. Amol Sinha, the executive director of the ACLU in New Jersey, said that detainees had complained about “inedible food, unsanitary conditions, abusive treatment, indignities left and right, and limited access or no access to medical care.”

ICE accused of state-sanctioned violence

“It is important to see that the people being described as ‘rioters’ in the news and in the government are primarily the youth,” Lip argued. She also defended the protesters, saying that they are only with a keffiyeh and a megaphone. Lip also observed that ambulances would often go in and out of the facility.

What is happening inside Delaney Hall couldn’t be confirmed. Lip alleges that there are no cameras inside the facility.

On May 29th, Lip also said that New Jersey police told protesters that they needed to move to a “First Amendment Zone” for their safety. Instead of vacating the premises, the protesters sat down to chant. The police would later demand the medic tent be removed, which the protesters eventually did. And by 10:00 p.m., Lip said that the police came out riding horses. Then, they began throwing flashbangs and chemical weapons to disperse the crowd.

The next day, Lip noted that an additional barricade has been installed. Lip also saw counterprotesters, who allegedly included some Proud Boys—a far-right extremist group—in support of ICE. Protesters were arrested later on, and Lip claimed that those captured would be detained for more than 20 hours. She further added that most of the protesters face felony rioting charges.

(featured images: Brenna Lip)

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