National

ICE Agents to Leave Site of Volatile Protests at Detention Center

By Ana Ley and Mark Bonamo NYT News Service/Syndicate Stories
Protesters scuffle with masked immigration agents during a demonstration outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., on Thursday evening, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
Protesters scuffle with masked immigration agents during a demonstration outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., on Thursday evening, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) TODD HEISLER NYT

Hours after federal agents agreed to withdraw from the parking lot of an immigration detention center in New Jersey to allow oversight from local law enforcement, state troopers scuffled late Friday with protesters who have been gathering there since the Memorial Day weekend.

Sgt. 1st Class Charles Marchan of the New Jersey State Police said in an interview Friday that his agency had negotiated with federal officials to leave the area outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark so that the state police could assume control.

The change could restore order outside the center, where federal officers on Friday charged into a crowd, pushed protesters to the ground and sprayed a chemical irritant. One officer beat a demonstrator with a baton across the torso, thighs, knee and calves as he tried to flee. Three protesters were arrested and carried past a razor-wire fence into the detention center.

Later on Friday, around 50 protesters remained outside the facility, with about two dozen law enforcement officers seen standing guard. Several protesters said that state troopers charged them on foot and on horseback in an attempt to disperse the demonstration. The New Jersey State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the confrontations Friday night.

Just after midnight, some protesters were shouting at several men in civilian clothes, who then quickly walked through a line of uniformed officers into the detention center.

Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement Friday that the decision to remove the federal officers represented a victory for his agency because Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey had refused to allow state police to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

"This is a win for law and order," Mullin said in a statement. "Thank you, governor."

The agency has insisted that federal agents have used the minimum amount of force needed to protect themselves from protesters, whom the officials described as rioters engaged in obstructing law enforcement officers from doing their job.

Sherrill said that state police officials would designate a protest zone Friday where demonstrators can gather outside Delaney Hall.

"I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state," Sherrill said during a news conference. "Our top priority is public safety, and we need to take this opportunity to lower the temperature now."

The protests began during the Memorial Day weekend, when crowds descended on the parking lot of the detention center, which sits inside a desolate industrial park fouled by the stench of raw sewage from the nearby Passaic River. Emotions have become inflamed at times, with activists taunting federal agents and one woman sobbing inside a tent.

Elected officials have appeared during the day, including Sherrill, Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, and several members of Congress from New Jersey and New York. On Monday, after the governor left, the protesters blocked an entrance and agents responded by firing pepper balls and spray at them. Sen. Andy Kim, who said he was trying to de-escalate the situation, was among those affected.

Skirmishes continued during the week, and federal agents have episodically deployed chemical spray, mostly in the dark morning hours.

On Wednesday, a group of demonstrators was arrested, and on Thursday, relatives of detainees and advocates for immigrants said that migrants were being beaten and subjected to pepper spray in response to a hunger strike by some inmates. In an email sent Friday, officials with the Department of Homeland Security said that there had been a fight involving detainees at Delaney Hall and that jail staff had broken it up. The officials said that detainees who were affected were evaluated by medical workers and that no one was seriously hurt.

The Department of Homeland Security denied that there was a hunger strike at Delaney Hall on Tuesday and urged people who are being detained to self-deport. But later the same day, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey issued a statement insisting that for days, hundreds of detainees at the center had participated in a hunger strike to protest spoiled food and poor medical care. The organization said that migrants at other detention centers had engaged in similar acts of resistance.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Protesters scuffle with masked immigration agents during a demonstration outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., on Thursday evening, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
Protesters scuffle with masked immigration agents during a demonstration outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., on Thursday evening, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) TODD HEISLER NYT
Protesters confront masked immigration agents during a demonstration outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
Protesters confront masked immigration agents during a demonstration outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) TODD HEISLER NYT
Inmates stands at windows at Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., as demonstrators gather outside on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
Inmates stands at windows at Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., as demonstrators gather outside on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) TODD HEISLER NYT
An inmate stands at a window at Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., as demonstrators gather outside on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)
An inmate stands at a window at Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., as demonstrators gather outside on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. For nearly a week, relatives of migrants at Delaney Hall have said that some detainees have been on a hunger strike at the facility. Federal officials have denied that a hunger strike is taking place. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) TODD HEISLER NYT

Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 4:26 PM.

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