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As hundreds of immigrant detainees mark a week of their hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and prison guards are violently retaliating against protesters both inside and outside the facility.

The anti-strike crackdown has included attacking detainees with pepper spray and batons, transferring strike leaders out of the facility, and arresting protestors who have gathered outside the jail, which is staffed by private prison company GEO group.

In remarks outside Delaney Hall on Thursday, Li Adorno, an organizer with Cosecha New Jersey, said:

We are here today because we got information from inside that’s telling us that ICE and GEO are going unit by unit, and they’re dispersing gas, and they’re beating people up. Right now, we have already heard that they have gone through all of the units. This is retaliation for the organizing, for the freedom of speech, that they [the strikers] exercise as they do their hunger strike, as they do their labor strike.

We are here today because we got information from inside that’s telling us that ICE and GEO are going unit by unit, and they’re dispersing gas, and they’re beating people up. Right now, we have already heard that they have gone through all of the units. This is retaliation for the organizing, for the freedom of speech, that they [the strikers] exercise as they do their hunger strike, as they do their labor strike.

He condemned New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) for only visiting the site once, after four days of protest, and for not launching an investigation into the conditions at jail.

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

“It is very infuriating that we let ICE and GEO do whatever the hell they want. It’s infuriating to see humanity die inside when these ICE agents are teargassing........

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