Proud Boys, communist groups clash at New Jersey ICE detention center protest
NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
The ongoing unrest outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey, featured prominent views during Saturday’s ICE protests, as left-wing communist and socialist activists and far-right groups clashed, turning a protest over the facility’s conditions into a wider political spectacle.
The disagreement started more than a week ago, when those illegally detained wrote an open letter complaining of physical and mental torture, saying they were denied medical care and adequate food.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly denied the allegations, releasing menus showing detainees were served three meals a day with options such as chicken fajitas and Salisbury steak.
Communist groups gathered outside Delany Hall in Newark, NJ, on Saturday, to protest ICE. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
NEW JERSEY AGITATORS BITE, KICK AND PUNCH ICE AGENTS AS DELANEY HALL COMMUNICATION CONTINUES; 9 OTHERS ARRESTED: DHS
After violent clashes earlier in the week, in which federal agents were attacked by protesters, Democrat Gov. Mikie Sherrill ordered the New Jersey State Police to step up security, saying the move was necessary to protect protesters from “ICE raids.”
By Saturday morning, the immigration detention center had turned into an enclosure surrounded by large orange plastic barriers and metal fences.
State officials have acknowledged that the violence is being driven by outsiders, not local residents, and state Attorney General Jennifer Davenport confirmed that five of the six people arrested by state police this week are not from New Jersey.
Right-wing activists were seen confronting far-left communists and socialists Saturday at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, NJ. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
A crowd of about 200 anti-ICE protesters, closely linked to far-left and socialist movements, dominated the scene Saturday, chanting, “Stop the ICE Gestapo! Communist revolution!” while distributing fanatical pamphlets that read “LONG LIVE AUTHORITY!” and “NO PAPERS, NO CONDITIONS, NO MANAGERS.”
ICE supporters, including members of the far-right Proud Boys, also showed up at Saturday’s protest carrying pro-ICE flags, food and water cases to uphold the law.
Their arrival sent the massive anti-ICE crowd into a frenzy, with far-left crowds running to the barricades, shouting and changing their chants to “Proud Boys Go Home.”
Pro-ICE supporters clash with anti-ICE protesters during protests outside the Delaney Hall detention center, Saturday, in Newark, NJ. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Sherrill said ICE’s involvement “creates a very dangerous situation” and added that he refuses to “back down in the fight against the Trump administration and the threats they have made.”
Sherrill acknowledged that “extremist national groups” had intervened in the protests to create chaos, warning that extraterritorial actors were putting the public at risk and that they had not been arrested.
Delaney Hall Detention Center protesters chant outside the facility on Saturday in Newark, NJ. (Angelina Katsanis/AP)
“You’re not helping families in prison, and you’re not keeping Jersey safe today,” the governor said. “Moving forward, I urge those protesting outside Delaney Hall to lower the temperature so we can focus on the detainees and their families. Follow the official instructions of local and state law enforcement and allow lawyers, religious leaders and members of this community to continue their work here in America.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
He added that state health inspectors were recently barred from looking at anything other than the facility’s kitchen, and asked the Department of Homeland Security to stop forcing inmates to sign deportation papers.
