The private detention center located in Newark , New Jersey has been a flash point for the Trump/Miller policy of warehousing migrants sweep up by ICE’s aggressive actions .
It has had protests….
Visit by Federal lawmakers….
Some of those Federal lawmakers injured and detained ….
Efforts by State agencies to check on the place due to complaints and state assistance required due the situations created by the place…
Reports of physical abuse….
And reports of hunger strikes by those detained…
The media attention has been NEGATIVE and costly to Trump….
A private detention center in New Jersey has again become a major flashpoint in the fight over the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Why it matters: It’s the first major clash under Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin‘s leadership. Protesters have been arrested outside the facility while detainees reportedly take part in a hunger strike over claims of inhumane living conditions and inadequate medical care.
- The 1,000-bed Delaney Hall Facility reopened in Newark, New Jersey, last year. Since then, it’s been the scene of high-profile protests, arrests and escapes.
- Democratic lawmakers and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) have called for the detention center to be shut down.
The latest: Sherrill announced Friday the formation of a protected protest zone outside of the facility.
- Sherrill also said she’d take “every action available” to facilitate a full inspection of the facility by the New Jersey Department of Health, which she said had its access restricted.
- A department spokesperson confirmed to Axios that inspectors were only allowed to conduct a food service inspection.
The other side: Mullin has argued the backlash has “nothing to do with the conditions at the facility,” which DHS says include three meals a day, clean water, clothing and other resources.
- DHS has contended there is no hunger strike. Mullin said during a Wednesday meeting of Trump’s Cabinet that the “handful of individuals” refused to eat because they wanted their “ethnic right food.”
- Mullin added, “They can go back to their country and get whatever food they want.”
- DHS did not respond to Axios’ request for additional comment.
State of play: But Nedia Morsy, the director of Make the Road New Jersey, tells Axios that the hunger strike is a coordinated effort among 300 detained community members seeking release.
- “ICE lies and manipulates and threatens and continues to feel that they have the permission to do so because … Mullin enables it and encourages it,” she argues.
- Ami Kachalia, a senior policy strategist with the ACLU of New Jersey, tells Axios there has been “brutality in the conditions, and there’s been brutality in the response.”
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Not only does the outcry represent a pivotal moment in Mullin’s tenure, but it is also reminiscent of similar scenes at immigration facilities across the country….
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