Hundreds of immigrants detained at the ICE jail known as Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and labor strike for nearly two weeks. They are protesting the conditions at the jail, including spoiled food that has had maggots in it, overcrowding and inadequate medical care. Detainees are also forced to work for around $1 per day. In retaliation against the strike, guards at Delaney Hall have reportedly beaten participants, and family visitation was temporarily suspended. The strikers are demanding their release from the ICE jail and that the most vulnerable populations are freed first.
Detainees’ family members, along with immigration advocates and anti-ICE protesters, have been rallying outside Delaney Hall since the strike began. Democracy Now!’s María Taracena was outside Delaney on Tuesday. She spoke to a detainee who had just been released, a community organizer, a lawyer and family members who were waiting to visit their loved ones inside the ICE jail.
Police have erected barricades half a mile around Delaney Hall, “making it more and more difficult to go and visit those who are on labor and hunger strike,” says Natalie, a New Jersey mutual aid organizer with the group Eyes on ICE. “I was trying to see my father. He recently got put in,” says the daughter of a man being held in Delaney Hall. She is struggling to find legal support for her father. “He does not deserve to go to another country when he belongs in this one.”
