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Nearly 40 women have joined the hunger strike at Delaney Hall immigrant jail in Newark, New Jersey, releasing a new set of gender-specific demands as the strike enters its fourth week.

On June 11, dozens of women detained in unit 1 of the jail announced that they were joining the hunger strike. Their demands include improving conditions in the facility; the release of female detainees, beginning with those who are under 21 years old, mothers, and women with medical conditions; and the firing of a guard who they say has sexually assaulted at least 10 women detained in the facility.

The facility is run by for-profit prison company GEO Group, which operates the detention center under a $1 billion contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“We are mothers, daughters, sisters. We are women that are being unjustly imprisoned. We are here to demand justice,” the women participating in the hunger strike stated in a video from the jail.

Some of their demands demonstrate the lack of basic sanitation in the facility: One demand is for the jail to provide safe drinking water. Other demands focus on replacing GEO Group medical staff with trained, qualified nurses, and replacing GEO Group security personnel, who have reportedly beaten and teargassed hunger strikers in retaliation for their organizing.

Protests Erupt at New Jersey Immigrant Jail in Support of Striking Detainees

Women detained at Delaney have filed 10 complaints against one GEO Group staff member, a female guard, accusing her of sexual assault. Despite their demands for her to be fired, she has remained employed.

On May 22, over 300 people detained in the immigration jail launched a hunger and labor strike, and were met with retaliation that included beatings, teargas, and transfers, culminating in........

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