Union members and community activists rallied Sunday outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center to protest the facility’s inhumane conditions and demand the release of those held inside. The rally was the latest in a series of monthly protests that have been held by the Labor Eyes on ICE alliance since the summer of 2025.

In addition to seeking the release of all those detained at Delaney, Labor Eyes on ICE is specifically calling for the release of Martin Soto, one of roughly 300 detainees involved in the May hunger and labor strike who was transferred to another prison in New Jersey due to his leadership during the strike. A petition seeking Martin’s release has been signed by over 12,000 people, and several labor unions have written letters to the Newark ICE office in support.

“We seek the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in the case of Martin Soto and his release from Elizabeth Detention Center," said Geoff Johnson of the Labor Eyes on ICE coalition and the Professional Staff Congress (PSC). “Martin was taken into ICE custody on February 1, 2026, while purchasing diapers, and he has been separated from his family since that day. Martin should be granted immediate discretionary release so he can return home and continue pursuing his immigration case.”

At a time when the Trump administration is targeting activists–including union members–who stand in opposition to Trump’s policies, it’s more important than ever that organized labor continues to speak out. According to Labor Notes, “Minnesota trade unionists active in worker assemblies are among the 15 people indicted by the federal government…as part of a sweeping crackdown on organizing in opposition to the ICE and Border Patrol.”

“We stand in solidarity with those detained inside Delaney Hall, and in similar facilities around the country, but we also stand with our fellow union activists in Minnesota and elsewhere whose First Amendment rights have been violated by the Trump administration simply because they opposed the ICE surge in the Twin Cities,” noted Karl Schwartz, one of the initiators of the Labor Eyes on ICE alliance.

Members of the alliance include HPAE Local 5094; OPEIU Local 153; URA-AFT Local 1766; Rutgers AAUP-AFT; PSC-CUNY; Newark Library Workers, AFSCME Local 2298; Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, Local 6324; Washington-Baltimore News Guild, CWA Local 32035; AAUP, Princeton; CWA Local 1037; and United Council of Academics (UCAN) at NJIT.

Labor Eyes on ICE is an alliance of labor unions that supports the complete abolition of ICE, freedom for everyone currently being held in immigrant detention, the closing of all immigrant detention centers, and an end to mass incarceration. The alliance has held monthly rallies at Delaney Hall since June of 2025 in solidarity with those held inside the immigration camp run by the for-profit private prison corporation GEO Group.

(Photo credit Geoff Johnson.)