Four detainees managed to break through a wall and escape from a federal immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey. This incident occurred amidst reports of unrest at the facility, as reported by a U.S. senator and the Department of Homeland Security.
Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, addressed the situation outside the Delaney Hall detention center on Friday. He shared that detainees had breached an inner wall which led to an outer wall, allowing them access to a parking lot from which they escaped.
Enhanced efforts are underway to locate the escaped detainees, including collaboration with additional “law enforcement partners,” according to an emailed statement from a senior official at DHS, whose identity was not disclosed. The statement did not reveal which specific law enforcement agencies are participating in this search.
The development comes amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and a day ahead of major protests against his policies planned across the country.
DHS identified the escapees as two Colombian men who were arrested on burglary and other charges, and two Hondurans, Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, who were arrested on aggravated assault and other charges. A court records search did not turn up attorney information for them.
Newark’s mayor cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.
GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the detention facility for the federal government, said in a statement that there’s “no widespread unrest” at the facility.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened a 1,000-bed facility there this year under a 15-year, $1 billion contract as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Protest at the detention center
Photos and video from outside the facility Thursday showed protesters pushing against the gates as word spread that detainees inside were upset about delayed meals.
Amy Torres, executive director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said some officers pepper sprayed, tackled and dragged protesters away from the facility. She said some protesters had minor injuries.
Mustafa Cetin, an attorney for a client who’s been detained in Delaney Hall for about two weeks, told The Associated Press that things turned violent late Thursday afternoon after detainees’ meals arrived hours late.
“Apparently the guards lost control of them,” Cetin said. “And they started to, you know, create a disturbance. They came back up to the third floor, where my client is. Basically, they blocked off cameras, security cameras, and some of them made their way into a housing unit with a very thin, shallow wall, and they knocked it out.”
A 32-year-old American nurse from New Jersey named Kimberly said her husband, who is being held at the facility, told her the unrest began around 7 p.m. Thursday on the detention center’s upper floor as inmates were upset about waiting hours to be fed. Kimberly declined to be identified by her surname out of concern for her husband’s safety.
“Nobody was talking to them or answering their questions, so they got upset and started rioting or fighting with each other,” Kimberly said her husband recounted.
The Brazilian man had been detained in front of their New Jersey home in late May. He had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and requested asylum in the early 2000s and was issued a deportation order in 2005.
Kimberly, a U.S. citizen, said they have been seeking a legal way for him to remain in the country since they married three years ago. They have a 1-year-old child.
She said she feels powerless.
“There’s nothing really I can do. Government doesn’t seem to be on our side. Police enforcement isn’t on our side,” she said. “They’re not giving us answers. They’re not even letting us know that something happened inside that facility.”
Kim, the senator, said he heard about problems related to food and an odor in the water. Kim added that it seems as if there will be “major movements” of detainees out of the facility soon. He said he was seeking “full confirmation” about that.
DHS, which oversees ICE, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Reports of inmates not getting enough food
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who’s been critical of Trump’s immigration crackdown, early Friday called for an end to the “chaos.”
In a phone interview, Baraka pointed to the city’s lawsuit against GEO Group and said it didn’t have the proper city permits to operate. The company has said it had certification from the city from an earlier contract.
“It’s one chaotic moment after the next,” Baraka said.
In a statement Friday, American Friends Service Committee said people inside the facility reported getting small portions of food, with breakfast at 6 a.m., dinner at 10 p.m. and no lunch.
In a statement, GEO Group said it was dedicated to “providing high-quality services to those in our care.”
Miguel Orea, program manager for First Friends of New Jersey and New York, a non-governmental organization that provides assistance to detained immigrants, was at Delaney Hall on Friday and saw families trying to visit detainees being turned away.
“Delaney Hall is in a strict lockdown,” Orea said. “They’ve suspended all visitation until at least next week.”
He said families who have been in contact with detainees told him the cafeteria is being used to hold people who will be transferred elsewhere, affecting the meal service. Orea said the complaints began after the facility opened in May.
“The families have told us that the conditions were extremely poor, that the food service was poor,” Orea said. He noted that in some cases detainees would receive breakfast at 8 a.m. and dinner not until 10 p.m., with no other meal in between. In some cases, he said, they received only two slices of bread.
Newark was one of four New Jersey cities sued by the Trump administration this year over so-called sanctuary policies.
There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limited local cooperation with ICE, which enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks local help.
The policies are aimed at prohibiting cooperation on civil enforcement matters, not at blocking cooperation on criminal cases. They carve out exceptions for when ICE supplies police with a judicial criminal warrant.
Asked whether Newark was helping with the four escapees, Baraka said it was a federal investigation.
A nationwide crackdown
ICE housed more than 53,000 people nationwide at the end of May, according to its latest public figures, which is well above its budgeted capacity of about 41,000 and approaching all-time highs.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said late last month ICE should make at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from Jan. 20 through May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.
Delaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the administration and those who run the facility.
Baraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped and Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges.
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Associated Press writers Gisela Salomon and Hallie Golden contributed to this report.
