Newark Mayor Ras Baraka threatened to expand a lawsuit to shut down the Delaney Hall immigration detention center a day after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he was considering sending immigration officers to handle protests.
Demonstrations over reports of inhumane conditions at the New Jersey facility included protesters clashing with police, setting fires and throwing bottles, rocks, lumber and fireworks at police. Mr. Mullin has said he has a contingency plan to quell the discontent: deploying Customs and Border Protection agents if local leaders refuse to provide resources.
The mayor countered by threatening to close the center if state health inspectors are denied full access.
Protests outside Delaney Hall erupted in late May after reports of a hunger strike and an inmate not receiving proper medical care after a miscarriage. Homeland Security officials said the reports were baseless.
“It’s troubling, which forces us to expand our lawsuit against Delaney Hall,” Mr. Baraka said at a Tuesday press conference outside the facility.
Several lawmakers have visited the facility since the protests began, saying they saw the poor conditions firsthand.
Mr. Mullin has said the reports of the poor conditions are untrue.
The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, told NewsNation that he personally oversaw operations at Delaney Hall last weekend, labeling many of the allegations of poor conditions “stone cold lies.”
The private facility’s owner, GEO Group, has also denied such reports, saying services are monitored by ICE personnel stationed there.
Newark already has a lawsuit against the prison company, saying it opened the center without proper permits.
“GEO [Group] is a private company who is hiding under the auspices of a contract that they have with the federal government,” the mayor said. “This is a private facility — private workers — and they are subject to state and municipal laws. They cannot be shielded by a contract that they have with Homeland Security.”
Mr. Mullin threatened to send in federal immigration officers to tone down the civil unrest, which has turned violent on several occasions, with federal officers using tear gas and batons to push back rioters. Homeland Security said that some protesters have thrown projectiles, including bottles and rocks, at federal agents.
As many as 60 protesters have been arrested at Delaney Hall as the violence escalated in recent days.
“Since the state police and the local police say they don’t have the resources to build a response, then we’re going to have to get our resources from someplace else, because we’re going to protect our men and women that work for us,” Mr. Mullin told Fox News.
He added that the “closest resource we have” is the Special Response Team to conduct crowd control and clear the streets.
“I have to make a decision on my resources, just like the governor and the mayor [were] making decisions based on their resources,” Mr. Mullin said.
While that plan has not been activated, speculation about deploying immigration officers has circulated recently. The secretary did note that state and local leadership has cooperated.
Mr. Baraka, who has decried Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics and called for the closure of Delaney Hall, said Monday that city police will take a larger role in overseeing the protests.
He said that the city’s public safety director will be “intricately involved in enforcement decision-making to implement the department’s effective community policing tactics and safeguard the well-being and rights of demonstrators.”
He added, “The police tactics over this last weekend were overly aggressive, unnecessary, and in some instances unconstitutional.”
While a 9 p.m. curfew in the area has been extended, it did not stop protesters from gathering outside Delaney Hall. Several have been arrested since the first curfew was enacted.
The New Jersey State Police’s half-mile buffer zone outside the detention center includes designated protest areas and a mandatory overnight curfew meant to de-escalate clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement.
The Delaney Hall immigration detention center is proving to be one of the secretary’s biggest tests since stepping into the role in March.
Mr. Mullin is slated to testify Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, where he’s expected to be grilled over conditions at Delaney Hall.
