For more than two weeks, police cruisers and demonstrators have gathered outside Delaney Hall, a privately operated 1,000-bed immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey.
Inside, at least 300 detainees have launched a coordinated hunger and labor strike, protesting spoiled food, inadequate medical care, and poor living conditions.
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The tension has spilled beyond the facility's walls. Outside, clashes between law enforcement and protesters have turned violent.
ICE agents used batons, pepper spray, and stun guns against journalists, demonstrators, and even a US senator.
Over 60 people were arrested after New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill deployed state police.
Meanwhile, federal authorities transferred Martin Soto, a detainee in solitary confinement suspected of leading the strike, to another facility.
Historical Parallels
For historians, the scenes in New Jersey are painfully familiar.
The unrest at Delaney Hall is the latest chapter in a long legacy of immigrant incarceration and resistance.
Similar protests over water quality, mold, and medical neglect have occurred at facilities in California and New Mexico.
Jessica Ordaz, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity, notes that the conditions have deep historical roots.
“The conditions we are seeing today have been present for generations,” she said.
Ordaz explains that the structural foundation of modern centers dates back to the 19th century, when anti-immigrant laws targeted Chinese laborers along the US-Mexico border.
By the mid-1940s, facilities like the El Centro processing center used undocumented labor to build and maintain the very structures meant to confine them.
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“And there have always been protests from inside, but it’s the same narrative and the system of immigration control hasn’t been curtailed,” Ordaz added.
Food as a Weapon
Food has historically been both a grievance and a tool for resistance. During the mid-20th century Bracero program, processing hubs like El Centro weaponized sustenance to minimize costs.
Detainees were charged for cheap, low-nutrient food that often made them ill.
Today, the strategy inside Delaney Hall remains identical. Striking individuals risk their health to force public acknowledgment of their conditions.
Historically, concessions have been marginal.
At El Centro, detainees secured outdoor shade during peak summer heat, but many organizers were deported, hospitalized, or transferred under high-stress conditions.
Addressing the systemic roots requires looking beyond individual agencies to broader geopolitical dynamics, including economic displacement and the historical recruitment of migrant labor by the United States.
Outside Solidarity
Internal resistance rarely achieves structural change without robust external pressure. Sustainable momentum relies on multi-tactic solidarity campaigns that bridge the gap between detainees and advocacy groups.
Legislative pressure involves activists coordinating with politicians to defund carceral expansions. Disruptive protests, such as highway sit-ins, capture media focus.
Inter-organizational coalitions align distinct groups under a unified framework to secure incremental releases.
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While broad institutional overhauls are rare, grassroots networks have historically succeeded in chipping away at the carceral state, securing freedom one individual at a time while keeping internal conditions exposed to public scrutiny.
