Note: most of these resources are from Resistencia en Acción New Jersey (REA NJ), is a grassroots, volunteer-led organization that was founded in 2009. Its mission is to advance and protect the rights of immigrants and working-class communities in New Jersey. Here’s how you can support their work on the ground at Delaney Hall.

Delaney Hall is a privately run ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, operated by the GEO Group. On May 22, roughly 300 detainees began a hunger and labor strike — refusing to perform the cooking, cleaning, and repair work that keeps the facility running, often for $1 a day or nothing. Their reported conditions include scalding showers that caused burns, worms in food, denied medical care, months in detention without a scheduled hearing, and pressure to sign deportation documents. Nedia Morsy, the director of Make the Road New Jersey, an immigration advocacy group, likened the conditions to “a modern-day concentration camp, and history will not forgive silence in this moment.”

ICE responded by pepper-spraying and beating detainees, transferring strike leaders to other facilities, and suspending family visits (The Intercept). DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin have denied that any hunger strike is occurring, calling the allegations politically motivated smears from "sanctuary politicians" (Time).

Protests outside the facility, many simply standing in solidarity with the strike, have increased steadily over the past nine days. Demonstrators clashed with federal ICE agents, prompting Gov. Mikie Sherrill to deploy the New Jersey State Police on May 29 to secure the perimeter (NBC News). Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a nightly curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and police used tear gas, riot shields, and mounted units to disperse crowds (ABC7). Sherrill, along with other Democratic officials and immigrant advocates, has called for Delaney Hall to be shut down entirely (CNN).

This state-federal standoff is one of the most direct confrontations between state authority and federal enforcement, in a moment when that boundary is being tested everywhere (Migration Policy Institute). ICE detention has expanded dramatically under the Trump administration — from roughly 37,000 detainees a year ago to over 72,000 by early 2026, backed by $45 billion in new congressional funding (NPR). How we resist in New Jersey, similar to confrontations in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, can shape our collective response in the future.