Gothamist76%
NJ senator pepper-sprayed with protestors outside Delaney Hall immigrant center in Newark 49%
By Louis C. Hochman0%
5/26/2026, 12:25:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Confirmation Bias, and Unattributed Quote, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 51.9% saturation with 348 hits. Analysis detected 2,041 faulty-reasoning hits from 671 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 49.6% and a BS Rank of 49% (8,648 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 51.40% of the article peer group.
ICE agents pepper-sprayed protesters, pushed demonstrators back with batons and used an armed vehicle to deter the crowd amid continuing clashes outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark yesterday, according to local officials and video from the scene.
Video and photos posted by NJ.com show Sen.
Andy Kim’s eyes being washed out after he was exposed to pepper spray in a confrontation between demonstrators and ICE Monday.
In a social media post, the senator said detainees were “protesting the lack of due process, the disgusting food and poor treatment while their families and advocates stood outside calling for help.”
Detainees at the center have been holding a hunger strike since Friday, according to immigrant advocates.
An open letter signed by nearly 300 detainees earlier this month said immigrants there were living in poor conditions and being denied due process rights by the immigration justice system.
“Instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions, ICE sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire,” Kim wrote on social media.
“Civilians were tackled and restrained, and agents fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd.
This is more of the same lawlessness we’ve seen elsewhere around the country.”
The Department of Homeland Security, in a statement late Monday night, said no individuals were struck directly by pepper-ball projectiles.
It said officers issued “multiple lawful verbal commands for rioters” to disperse, but demonstrators obstructed the center’s exit routes.
DHS said its agents used the minimum force necessary to protect themselves, the public and federal property
Several elected officials have visited the protest outside Delaney Hall since demonstrators began gathering Sunday, including Gov.
Mikie Sherrill, who said she was denied access Monday.
“The people being held there are fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters who deserve to be treated with dignity,” Sherrill wrote on social media Monday.
“My request to access the facility was denied this morning, raising even more questions about what they are trying to hide from public view.”
Demonstrators at Delaney Hall had sought to block the transfer of Martin Soto, a Peruvian immigrant detained at Delaney Hall since February whose wife has been among those organizing protests outside.
Immigrant groups have described Soto as one of the organizers of the hunger strike.
The Department of Homeland Security said in an earlier statement to Gothamist that “agitators” blocked a vehicle’s path out of the facility Sunday as it tried to transfer Soto, but ICE was able to “successfully dispersed approximately 70 agitators” later in the day and remove barricades to transfer him to the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility.
Rep.
Rob Menendez said in a video on social media he was kept waiting for 18 hours without being let into Delaney Hall, before eventually meeting with Soto at the Elizabeth center.
DHS said statement visitation to Delaney Hall had been suspended as a security measure amid the protests.
Federal law and policy described in ICE guidance as recently as last year says members of Congress may visit detention facilities without advance notice, but the Trump administration has been seeking to curb that access.
Kim told InsiderNJ.com he was eventually allowed in after speaking to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Menendez told Gothamist Tuesday he expected to head back to Delaney Hall Tuesday.
Soto, who was detained while out buying diapers, has a court order preventing his transfer to any other facility, according to Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
Sinha had previously said the ACLU worked with Soto’s attorney and the U.S.
Attorney’s office to stop ICE from moving Soto elsewhere, before DHS later said the transfer had indeed taken place.
DHS and ICE have not answered messages this weekend seeking details on why Soto was transferred.
The DHS statement described him as charged with assault, but did not provide any further details on that incident or say what agency issued the charge.
Analysis
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