Protests against immigration enforcement outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey escalated into fresh violence after a period of relative calm. Federal officers sprayed chemicals and charged demonstrators outside the jail. Earlier tensions included pepper-spraying of US senator Andy Kim by masked and armored ICE personnel. During Tuesday evening, a protester who threw something at ICE officers was chased by dozens of officials, Tased, and carried into the jail. The facility is operated by GEO Group. Activists and detainees report 300 to 400 detainees are on hunger and labor strike, demanding improved food, ventilation, and medical care, and requesting that immigration cases proceed. The strike and protests occur amid an aggressive mass deportation campaign targeting immigrants nationwide.
"Protests against immigration enforcement at a facility where detainees are on a hunger and labor strike erupted in fresh violence on Tuesday night as federal officers sprayed chemicals and charged demonstrators outside the jail in New Jersey. Following hours of relative quiet, a day after masked and armored Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel pepper-sprayed US senator Andy Kim, tension ramped up again outside the Delaney Hall facility on the fifth day of the strike."
"At one point on Tuesday evening, a protester who threw something at ICE officers was chased by dozens of officials, Tased and then carried into the jail. The Newark-based ICE facility is operated by GEO Group, one of the biggest private prison companies in the US. According to activists and detainees, between 300 and 400 detainees are participating in the strike, demanding improved food, ventilation and medical care and for their immigration cases to proceed."
"The hunger and work strike and protests come as the Trump administration continues engaging in its controversial and increasingly unpopular, aggressive mass deportation campaign, targeting immigrants nationwide to detain and deport them. A letter from detainees was published by advocates on Tuesday morning. Two men recently released from Delaney confirmed in interviews with the Guardian their participation in the strike, despite denials by the Trump administration that any such strike is happening."
"We are detained, we are on hunger strike, demanding due process rights and the improvement of conditions, one of the men said in an interview with the Guardian. We are not criminals. We are people who enter [the facility] with a clean record. We pay our taxes. [We are] Fathers. Mothers. Spouses of citizens with existing petitions."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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