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Around 300 immigrants detained at the Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and work strike since Friday to protest inhumane conditions and due process violations. Delaney Hall is operated by the private prison company GEO Group. Since the hunger strike was launched, immigration advocates have been staging a solidarity protest outside Delaney Hall to promote the detainees’ demands for freedom. Protesters and ICE agents have clashed outside the jail, and three people have been arrested. Tensions escalated on Sunday when ICE removed a hunger strike organizer, Martín Soto, prompting protesters outside the ICE jail to block a van being used to transport him. Masked ICE agents responded by firing tear gas and pushing people to the ground. Soto was ultimately transferred to an ICE jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and is now facing criminal charges for allegedly assaulting an ICE officer.

We speak to Gabriela Soto, Martín Soto’s wife, and Li Adorno, an organizer with the group Movimiento Cosecha. Both have helped lead the protest outside Delaney Hall.

Gabriela Soto says that she started the protest in conjunction with the detainees’ strike so that the media could see how ICE is “destroying families and separating them.” Soto says that when she was blocked from seeing her husband during visiting hours on Saturday, a guard asked her why she was “spreading lies” and talking to the press. “He said, ‘Why are you telling people that we’re feeding them worms? Why are you telling people that we don’t give them medical care?’ I said, ‘Because it’s true.’”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today in Newark, New Jersey, where tensions remain high since about 300 prisoners at the ICE jail known as Delaney Hall began a hunger and labor strike Friday to protest inhumane conditions and due process violations. Delaney Hall is operated by the for-profit prison company GEO Group. Federal immigration agents have repeatedly clashed with protesters and community organizers outside the jail. Three people have reportedly been arrested.

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The Department of Homeland Security denied there’s a hunger strike at Delaney Hall, but on Tuesday so-called border czar Tom Homan threatened to force-feed the hunger strikers while speaking on Fox News.

TOM HOMAN: We’re not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike. As a matter of fact, if it gets bad enough and the physicians feel like they’re putting themselves in extreme danger, medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them. We’ll get a court order and force-feed them. Hunger strikes do not work.

TOM HOMAN: We’re not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike. As a matter of fact, if it gets bad enough and the physicians feel like they’re putting themselves in extreme danger, medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them. We’ll get a court order and force-feed them. Hunger strikes do not work.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened to cut off international flights and customs processing to Newark Airport if Newark continues its sanctuary city policy. He threatened all airports and sanctuary cities.

On Monday, New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entrance to Delaney Hall. This is Governor Sherrill.

GOV. MIKIE SHERRILL: I’ll continue to work to go in, but at the same time I think this really brings to light why the state has been fighting Roxbury so hard, because this type of facility shows exactly why we should not have private mass detention facilities.

GOV. MIKIE SHERRILL: I’ll continue to work to go in, but at the same time I think this really brings to light why the state has been fighting Roxbury so hard, because this type of facility shows exactly why we should not have private mass detention facilities.

AMY GOODMAN: Federal agents pepper-sprayed protesters on Monday. Among those hit was New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim as he tried to deescalate tensions between protesters and ICE agents. He had just completed a congressional tour of Delaney Hall along with Congressmember Rob Menendez. They described filthy bathrooms, abusive guards, inadequate medical care, said prisoners were being threatened with deportation to Ebola-stricken countries.

Tensions escalated Sunday after ICE removed hunger strike participant Martín Soto, prompting protesters outside Delaney Hall to block a van being used to transport him away. Masked ICE agents responded by firing tear gas and pushing people to the ground. Soto was ultimately transferred to an ICE jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

On Monday, New Jersey Democratic Congressmember Rob Menendez went to the Elizabeth ICE jail after spending Sunday night outside Delaney Hall. He shared this video on social media on Monday.

REP. ROB MENENDEZ: I went in and said I was there to conduct an unannounced oversight visit, as I have the legal right to do, and over the next 18 hours was kept waiting, misled by ICE multiple times. But what I ultimately told Gabriela, Martín’s wife, was that I would find him and I would see him. And that’s just what we got done doing here at the Elizabeth Detention Center, where he’s been transferred to.

REP. ROB MENENDEZ: I went in and said I was there to conduct an unannounced oversight visit, as I have the legal right to do, and over the next 18 hours was kept waiting, misled by ICE multiple times. But what I ultimately told Gabriela, Martín’s wife, was that I would find him and I would see him. And that’s just what we got done doing here at the Elizabeth Detention Center, where he’s been transferred to.

AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, Democracy Now!’s Juan González and I interviewed Gabriela Soto, the hunger striker, Martín Soto’s wife, and Li Adorno, an organizer with Movimiento Cosecha, the immigrant rights group leading the protests outside Delaney Hall. I began by asking Gabriela to describe when her husband Martín was first arrested by ICE and to walk us through what happened over Memorial Day weekend.

GABRIELA SOTO: He was detained in Kearny, New Jersey, in the 1st of February. He was out getting diapers for our son. He left around 5:30, 6:00. And around 7:00, I, like, didn’t hear from him, so I started calling his phone, but it was off. Then, around 10:15, 10:30 at night is when he called me from a prison jail number. I got a call from a prison jail number. And at that moment, like, my heart just stopped, because I already knew what that was. When I started this protest for Friday, I wanted press to come, so that they can see what they’re doing to destroying families and separating them. It was unfair that they targeted my husband, because on that same Friday, after the protest, like two hours after, they got him downstairs to the management office, and the first question that he was asked: “If we release you now, will you tell your wife to stop this protest?” The second question was “Did you know your wife was organizing the protest outside?” And the third question was “Are you the one organizing the strike inside?” He said “no comment” to all of those three questions, that he wants to go to his cell. They took that literally, and they locked him in his cell. I didn’t hear from him for hours. On Saturday, when I did visit him, his name was already highlighted on the paper. All the detainees that came down for visiting hours, they came down. My husband was the only one that didn’t come down. I went to the guard, and I told him, “Why did my husband not come down? His name was highlighted on the paper. I saw the paper.” And the guard told me, “Oh, I wanted to talk to you before I brought him down.” He took like 10 minutes asking me questions about why I’m spreading lies, why I am talking to the press, why I’m trying to bring light into what they’re doing........

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