A detention facility in New Jersey has become the latest flashpoint over the Trump Administration’s immigration agenda, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials clashed with protesters denouncing alleged inhumane conditions detainees face inside.

Federal agents fired pepper balls and mace at protesters outside Delaney Hall, a privately-run immigration facility in Newark, on Monday. CBS News reported that ICE agents in riot gear arrived late Monday afternoon to remove protesters blocking the facility entrance. Among those caught in the clashes was Sen. Andy Kim (D, N.J.), who had been trying to defuse the chaos. 

“What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country,” Kim told local news outlet NJ.com after the incident. “It’s sad, it’s a sad day.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X late Monday that “rioters” blocked law enforcement from exiting the facility, and federal agents “used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property,” adding that the pepper balls did not strike anyone directly.

The clashes at Delaney Hall are an apparent culmination of monthslong accusations about the facility’s subpar conditions from detainees, their relatives, and local officials. But Delaney Hall is just one of many immigration detention centers reportedly operating below standard as significantly more migrants have been detained under President Donald Trump’s Administration. Rights groups have raised concerns over rising deaths in these immigration centers, and politicians have called for increased oversight of how these facilities are being run.

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Here’s what to know about the situation in the New Jersey facility. 

Detainees on hunger strike

On Friday, some 300 detainees launched a hunger strike inside Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed facility operated by GEO Group, one of ICE’s biggest contractors for building and managing detention centers. 

According to the New Jersey Monitor, detainees shared with their loved ones outside, via calls and video chats, how they are being mistreated inside Delaney Hall. These include allegedly finding live worms in their meals and crowding in non-air-conditioned rooms. 

The detainees also claimed instances of judges allegedly snubbing their cases, or bonds being denied, to pressure them to self-deport. The strikers are calling for the release of innocent detainees and for immigration judges to attend to their cases.

But the New Jersey Monitor reported that calls from inside were later cut, with one activist telling the news outlet that it was “punishment and retaliation because of the ongoing organizing going on inside.”

Sen. Kim and U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez visited the facility on Saturday, and, in several posts on X, Kim outlined what he found inside, including a pregnant woman allegedly denied full OB-GYN support, another who says she had a miscarriage inside the facility, and individuals who were arrested at scheduled interviews for green cards, among others. 

It also invited a larger crowd, with Gothamist estimating that more than 100 people gathered outside the facility at one point.

Gothamist reported that protests escalated outside Delaney Hall’s gates from Sunday afternoon until the early hours of Monday after word spread that ICE had attempted to move a detainee who was a key organizer of the strike.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill, another Democrat, also went to the complex on Monday morning but was denied access, which she said raised “even more questions about what [ICE] are trying to hide from public view.”

DHS refutes claims of subpar conditions

DHS, in a Monday press release, denied allegations of poor conditions inside Delaney Hall and accused New Jersey politicians of “spreading smears” about ICE and the facility.

The department claimed that all detainees are given three meals daily—evaluated by certified dietitians—as well as clean water, clothes, bedding, and toiletries. It also claimed detainees could access phones and communicate with family members and lawyers and that medical, dental, and mental health services, including 24-hour emergency care, are available to those in ICE custody.

“In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” DHS added.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Monday accused New Jersey’s “sanctuary politicians” on social media of staging a “political stunt,” adding that “there is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall,” and that “there are no subprime conditions.” (Per ICE policy, a detainee observed to have not eaten for 72 hours is considered on a hunger strike and should be referred to medical authorities.)

TIME has reached out to GEO Group for comment on the specific allegations from detainees. A spokesperson told independent news outlet TheCity that they were “proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission” of ICE, highlighting detainees having “around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals.”

Delaney Hall’s history of issues

The facility in Newark has been a lightning rod of controversy ever since GEO Group announced in February 2025 that it secured a 15-year contract with ICE to reopen the facility and establish a federal immigration processing center there, which GEO Group estimated to be valued at $1 billion. Court documents show that the facility opened in 2000 and that, from 2011 through its closure in 2017, ICE previously housed up to 450 immigration detainees at a time there.

In April 2025, a month before Delaney Hall began accepting new detainees again, the city of Newark sued GEO Group for lacking the proper city permits. At the time, GEO Group accused Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, also a Democrat, of politicizing the issue. A federal judge ordered the city and the operator to try to resolve differences, according to a May 22 report from the Jersey Vindicator.

In May 2025, Baraka was arrested outside the jail and charged with trespassing, though the charge was later dropped. U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, another New Jersey Democrat, was also charged with assaulting officers when she intervened during Baraka’s arrest. She has denounced the charges.

In June 2025, four detainees escaped from Delaney Hall after dozens of others inside the facility mounted an uprising in apparent revolt against detention conditions. The four were eventually apprehended. 

Before the strike, detainees in the facility penned letters pleading for help from officials and lamenting alleged violations of their rights and lack of due process.