Atop an empty patch of pavement in Newark, New Jersey, dozens of demonstrators arrived at dawn Tuesday hoisting cardboard protest signs. In front of them, an armored vehicle rolled up to a cordon of federal agents who carried rifles and metal batons, their bodies concealed beneath the rising sun in helmets, flak vests and balaclavas.
For five days, the two sides have been in a volatile standoff outside Delaney Hall, a federal detention center that has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. A stream of activists have cycled in and out of a parking lot to support what they described as a hunger strike by detainees. For months, the incarcerated migrants have complained to family members and elected officials about rotten food and inadequate medical care. Democratic elected officials have expressed outrage over the migrants’ living conditions.
On Tuesday, emotions were inflamed. Some activists taunted the agents, and one woman sobbed inside a tent. As the day grew hotter, the stench from the nearby Passaic River, fetid from raw sewage, permeated the air.
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The Department of Homeland Security, which is the parent agency of ICE, dismissed accusations that detainees were being subjected to inhumane living conditions. In an email sent Tuesday afternoon, the agency said there was no hunger strike at Delaney Hall “at this time” and urged people who are being detained to self-deport.
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Not long after the federal agency’s email arrived, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey issued a statement insisting that for days, hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall participated in a hunger strike to protest mistreatment. The ACLU of New Jersey said migrants at other detention centers had engaged in similar acts of resistance.
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The crowd of protesters has ranged from a few dozen to more than 100, with dozens of federal agents responding.
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The post The Battle Over Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Comes to a New Jersey Parking Lot appeared first on American Renaissance.
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