Detained Immigrants Continue Labor and Hunger Strike at Delaney Hall

Participants demand freedom and cite medical neglect, coerced deportations, exploitative labor, and complete violations of due process

AFSC can arrange media interviews with detained immigrants, family members, immigration attorneys, and organizers.

NEWARK, NJ - The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is working with immigrants at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark who have been carrying out a labor and hunger strike to protest conditions at the prison since Friday, May 23.

The strikers are demanding:

• An immediate in-person meeting with Governor Mikie Sherrill at Delaney Hall so she can directly observe conditions and hear testimony from detained individuals.
• The immediate release of all prisoners including vulnerable detainees, including elderly people, pregnant women, young people, and individuals with serious medical conditions.
• Meaningful and fair review of immigration cases and habeas petitions.
• An end to what detained individuals describes as coercive pressure to sign deportation or voluntary departure documents.

Additional issues include medical neglect, exploitative labor practices, prolonged detention, spoiled food, and systemic violations of due process. Strike participants say they will continue refusing meals and labor assignments until their demands are addressed.

“The people inside Delaney Hall are speaking out to demonstrate the power they have despite their confinement,” said Jenny Garcia, a campaign coordinator with AFSC’s New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program. “They’re trapped in a system that prevents them from accessing due process and keeps them separated from their loved ones and legal teams. On top of that, they’re held in inhumane conditions and forced to work for the same private company that profits from their misery.”

Participants in the strike say detained workers are responsible for food service, sanitation, snow removal, and facility maintenance labor for as little as $1 to $2 per day and allege that workers are sometimes not compensated for days, weeks, or months at a time. Participants also describe people sleeping on floors due to overcrowding, delays and denials of medical treatment, and pressure to sign deportation or voluntary departure paperwork without fully understanding the consequences.

“We are uplifting our voices, across all the detention centers, of the injustice we are suffering from being detained in these detention centers,” said one participant in the strike speaking from inside Delaney Hall. “They make you believe you only have two options, deportation or voluntary departure. We demand the judges are non-biased and fair to every individual case.”

Parima Kadikar, a legal fellow with AFSC, agreed: “Our clients are detained in despicable conditions, without due process, simply for acting on the most human impulse – trying to find safety for themselves and their families,” she said. "We are terrified for our clients at Delaney Hall, but also endlessly inspired by their courage and reinvigorated in our duty to advocate for them.”

The strike comes amid increasing public scrutiny of Delaney Hall. Family members of the detained individuals, concerned New Jersey residents, and immigrant rights organizations have gathered near the facility in recent days to show solidarity with the strike participants and demand action from political leaders.

Outside Delaney Hall on the first day of the strike, a mother of an 18-year-old detainee explained that her daughter was supposed to be celebrating one of the biggest milestones of her life, not sitting in immigration detention: “Today was her prom, she was going to graduate this year. She should be at her prom, not detained inside there unjustly. She’s always complied with her immigration proceedings. She’s a girl who’s just starting her life.”

Advocates say the current protest follows a longer history of organizing and hunger strikes inside New Jersey immigration detention facilities, where detained immigrants have repeatedly raised concerns about medical care, conditions of confinement, and prolonged detention.

Itzel Hernandez, an immigrant rights organizer with AFSC, said that the strike at Delaney Hall concerns all of society: “We all have intrinsic dignity and the right to safety, freedom and justice. Our detained neighbors at Delaney and in detention centers across country have been stripped of those rights. That’s what these ICE jails do and have always done and that’s why they must be shut down. Until then, none of us are free.”

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The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.