Most Americans spent Memorial Day weekend quietly honoring the fallen and gathering with loved ones, but in Newark, New Jersey, progressive activists and Democratic politicians chose confrontation over contemplation at a federal immigration detention facility.
According to RedState, left-wing demonstrators descended on the ICE detention center at Delaney Hall in Newark over the holiday weekend, staging disruptive protests that escalated into blockades and clashes with law enforcement. They were soon joined by prominent New Jersey Democrats, including Sen. Andy Kim and Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who used the occasion to amplify their opposition to immigration enforcement rather than to reflect on the sacrifices of American service members.
Kim first attempted to enter the facility on Sunday, then returned on Monday alongside Sherrill and other members of the states congressional delegation. Im back at Delaney Hall with @GovSherrillNJ and other members of the NJ delegation to meet with families of detainees and listen to community advocates, Kim posted on X, adding, Were working together to make sure theyre heard and to speak out with them.??Delaney Hall must be shut down immediately.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that Kim personally called DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and was granted access to the facility to carry out his congressional oversight duties. However, the same spokesperson sharply rebuked Sherrills appearance, calling it a calculated bit of political theater timed for maximum visibility on a solemn national holiday.
Governor Sherrills visit to Delaney Hall is nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside the facility, the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Yesterday, approximately 125 agitators surrounded Delaney Hall Detention Facility, many carrying anti-ICE signs and Antifa flags. They formed a human chain around entrances to the facility and set up barricades, blocking all entries and exits.
Those agitators were back again on Monday, escalating their tactics beyond chanting and sign-waving. Video from the scene showed one protester digging up large paving blocks to reinforce a makeshift barricade blocking an exit from the facility, turning what they claimed was a peaceful protest into an intentional obstruction of federal operations.
Additional footage captured activists scavenging trash and debris to fortify their blockade, literally going dumpster-diving to pile random garbage in front of the detention centers exit. The optics were telling: self-styled social-justice crusaders building a wall of refuse to prevent federal officers from doing their jobs, while claiming the moral high ground.
The crowd hurled taunts at federal agents, chanting Quit your job and Why are you hiding your face? even as some of the demonstrators themselves concealed their identities behind masks. That double standard, emblematic of much of the modern activist left, appeared lost on the protesters, who seemed more interested in spectacle than in consistency or constructive dialogue.
At one point, activists were seen scanning cars leaving Delaney Hall for illegal immigrants before deciding whether to open their improvised barricades and allow vehicles to exit. In effect, private citizens were attempting to insert themselves into federal enforcement decisions, a troubling display of vigilante-style oversight masquerading as humanitarian concern.
Kim, caught between his activist allies and federal officers, was filmed urging protesters to let the agents pass through the blockade, assuring them he would verify that no detainees were being transported in the vehicles. That attempt at mediation did little to defuse the broader confrontation, which had already crossed the line from protest into obstruction.
Police reportedly deployed pepper spray as tensions rose, and several agitators were removed from the scene by law enforcement. Images later showed Kim having his eyes flushed out by so-called medics after he placed himself between federal agents and the far-left demonstrators blocking the entrance to the facility.
Sen. Andy Kim gets his eyes washed out by medics after getting between clashing federal agents and far left agitators blocking the entrance to Delaney Hall immigration detention center in NJ, one post on X noted, underscoring how the senators decision to physically insert himself into the fray turned a policy dispute into a made-for-camera confrontation. This was not the first time Democrats had used Delaney Hall as a stage; last year, members of the party created a similar scene there, and Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) was later indicted on charges stemming from that incident.
Despite the lefts narrative of abuse and neglect, DHS flatly rejected claims of mistreatment at the facility. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries, DHS said.
Illegal aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers, the agency said. Certified dieticians evaluate meals. In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. While progressive politicians and activists escalate their theatrics at Delaney Hall, federal officials insist that the facility operates under standards that many American inmates themselves do not enjoy, raising the question of whether these protests are truly about humane treatmentor about dismantling immigration enforcement altogether.
Login