ICE Riots at Delaney Detention Center
Cops and politicians protect the violent, out-of-state extremists with lies and batons.
Inside the barbed wire and concrete walls at Delaney Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey, ICE tortures prisoners with maggot-infested food, overcrowded cells, and freezing temperatures. The captives aren’t just being starved. They’re forced to maintain the facility for $1 a day, which they’re seldom paid. This is slavery. Those inside Delaney have not been duly convicted of a crime, meaning even the 13th Amendment’s back-door permission for carceral slavery doesn’t apply. Families of the incarcerated were the first to let the world know about this heinous crime, which was quickly confirmed by visiting politicians. Even those most reluctant to criticize state agents are speaking out. A year ago this week, New Jersey congressman Frank Pallone voted to express gratitude for ICE agents. Now, he’s condemning ICE’s brutality and calling for Delaney to be shuttered. Pallone’s opportunism is gross. But the fact that those most eager to apply their tongues to the fascist boot cannot defend them shows the gravity of ICE’s depravity.
Taking matters into their own hands, hundreds of Delaney prisoners launched a hunger and labor strike to protest their barbarous treatment. Aghast at the actions of their ‘democratic’ government, concerned Americans from within and without New Jersey rushed to the detention center to stand in solidarity with the strikers and condemn the state violence. While the citizenry exercised their 1st Amendment rights to criticize their government, the federal agents chose violence. On Friday night, ICE agents launched a riot. Driven by savage rage, masked federal thugs charged peaceful protestors with the weaponry of an occupying power. In the video below, agents target a specific protestor with a brutal barrage. Another agent rushes in and kicks a bystander under the wheels of a moving semi-truck, crushing his leg. This American will likely walk with a limp for the rest of their life — yet another citizen maimed by the federal government for daring to dissent.
These protestors pose no threat to public safety. Their only offense is defying Donald Trump’s blackshirts by challenging the fascist hierarchy with signs and chants. In an effort to expand the President’s personal militia, ICE hiring requirements were lowered from an already pathetic standard. Now, what is called ‘immigration enforcement’ is conducted by state-armed anti-social sadists. The media has captured numerous episodes of ICE agents threatening individuals. “You’re a dead man,” one masked agent warned after bystanders heckled him for pepper-spraying himself. These are not empty threats. ICE uses Palantir technology to identify and track protestors and observers. And guns to execute them in the street. For every death threat caught on camera, likely a dozen go unrecorded. If this is how ICE acts in full view of news crews, imagine what they’re doing to the prisoners behind concrete walls.
The liberal state responded as expected. Despite acknowledging that Delaney Hall is an ongoing human rights violation — what one might call a concentration camp — New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill betrayed her constituents by sending in the New Jersey State Troopers. This was as immoral as it was illegal. In March, Sherill signed legislation banning local cops from partnering with ICE. Less than two months later, she activated the New Jersey troopers and local cops to establish a “protest zone,” the latest tactic local governments are using to suppress the speech rights of anti-fascist Americans. All Sherill did was embolden the fascists. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin celebrated the Democratic Governor’s reversal by thanking her and calling the police-ICE cooperation a “win for law and order.” Former Border Patrol leader Greg Bovino, who oversaw the occupation of Minneanopolis and has a fondness for fascist iconography, supported the Delaney ICE rioters with a full Heil Hitler salute posted across his social media.
The cops did not give Mikie Sherril the “peace” she claimed to want. Instead, they joined the ICE rioters in assaulting Americans and suppressing their speech rights. On Sunday morning, Sherrill blamed “masked individuals” for attacking the protest barrier and triggering a clash with riot police. This was immediately disproven by video evidence showing the police knocking over the barrier and attacking the protestors.
As always, the governor and other politicians tried to discredit the protestors by saying they were “out-of-state extremists.” This means nothing. ICE is a federal agency, and those incarcerated in Delaney Hall were brought there from across the country. The protestors are Americans horrified by the depravity of the federal government. Sherill’s victim-blaming is also disproven by her own Senator. While the governor was helping the cops suppress speech rights, Senator Andy Kim was assaulted and pepper-sprayed after telling ICE commanders they couldn’t drive through a crowd of protestors.
The New Jersey Attorney General, Jennifer Davenport, dropped all pretense of honesty when she announced a curfew. Davenport blamed the violence on protestors who came “armed with helmets, shields, and gas masks.” These are not weapons, but protective equipment to protect protestors from police batons, tear gas, and bullets. “Orwellian” is overused. But it applies here.
The political attempts to lay blame for the chaotic scenes at the feet of the protestors are part of the police playbook. There is extensive video evidence, such as below, of the cops ‘kettling’ the crowds. As the name implies, kettling is when police force crowds into tight spaces with barricades and riot shields. Like pressure building in a tea kettle, once crowds begin to feel the deadly crush, they push back. Then the cops claim they are being attacked, and crack down with extraordinary violence. Here we see the New Jersey police, not ICE, kettle protestors with barricades.
Here we see New Jersey police start their kettling with a “go” order from the commanding officer. The cops rush to enclose protestors, entrapping them for arrest. These are not the actions of a peacekeeping force, but one looking to escalate the violence for reasons far beyond the maintenance of public order.
To further the narrative of “violent rioters,” state agents are directly targeting journalists to create a media blackout. Multiple journalists have reported that ICE and New Jersey police purposefully destroyed their equipment. The local NBC affiliate, WNBC, was forced out of its marked press vehicle and into tear gas clouds by armed riot police. The WNBC reporters were driven a third of a mile away from the detention center, preventing them from covering the violence unleashed on the remaining protestors.
The police violence and political lies are not separate, but two tactics in a cohesive project to create what Rachel Cohen called a “false peace.” By reversing the roles of the offending and defending parties, Sherill, ICE, and New Jersey troopers are trying to create the appearance of domestic tranquility by repressing and discrediting those trying to stop the most violent crime in the history of Newark, New Jersey. Peace is not the absence of violence, but the presence of justice. If there were justice at Delaney Detention Center, then there would be no protest outside. If there were no state repression, there would be none to resist it.
When Hakeem Jeffries called for Delaney to be shut down, he naively stated, “This is not America.” What is happening at Delaney is especially American. For centuries, our government has exported fascist violence throughout the world. There’s only so much you can deal out before it returns to your shores. It is impossible for those familiar with the Israeli Army’s colonization of Palestinians not to see the direct parallels between New Jersey and the West Bank. In both cases, the authoritarian state incarcerates and tortures the vulnerable community for the crime of existing where a settler colonial entity says they shouldn’t. Then, when others rush to defend the victims, they are branded as violent extremists and crushed with military force.
As The Wolfe Tones once sang, “How dare you call me a terrorist as you look down the barrel of your gun.”
If you would like to donate to the Delaney Hall protestors and detainees, you can do so here. More than that, I would encourage you to get involved with your local immigrants’ defense network. While the most spectacular ICE activity gets a lot of attention, the truth is, ICE is quietly active in every state. Last night, I was trained by the Colorado Rapid Response Network to identify ICE activity. (I should’ve done it a long time ago.) Similar organizations exist across the country and need your help. And if there isn’t an immigrant protection network in your area, consider starting one.
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In Solidarity — Joe
Thanks for writing this. It’s really well written. May there be a path for us to protect the innocent and remember and enact actual justice