Edgar Lee
On Thursday (06/12), about 50 inmates of the privately-owned Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey rioted and tore down a dormitory wall in response to insufficient food. Four inmates escaped during the uprising.
In conjunction with the rebellion, dozens of protesters blocked the facility gate in order to prevent police and ICE agents from storming in. Throughout the night and following day, under the threat of pepper spray and tasers, protesters continued blocking the facility so that inmates could not be relocated and officers could not enter or exit. Police eventually pushed through the gate, brutalizing the protesters who had been successfully blocking it until then.
According to the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, before the uprising inmates went 20 hours without food, were not fed between 6AM and 10PM, had pipes spray boiling water, and were denied visitation. When the inmates complained, officers pepper sprayed them so heavily that protesters on the outside were breathing it in.
According to the FBI, two of the escaped inmates were captured as of June 15 while the remaining two are still on the run. DHS is trying to save face, offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their capture.
In the midst of the rebellion, Newark’s Democrat-mafia mayor Ras J. Baraka indirectly condemned the rebellion in a shell of flowery words. The mayor’s statement reads in part: “This chaotic outcome is precisely why the City has ordinances requiring all facilities, including this ICE facility, to apply for the proper permits…” implying the issue has to do with poor conditions of the ICE facility due to it simply lacking the proper permits. Rather, the ICE raids and deportations are for terrorizing the working class through targeting some of its most profound sections—in a desperate attempt by the ruling class to recover from its economic crisis.
This just rebellion, both from the inmates and the protesters, displays the growing tenacity of the masses and the sharpening contradiction of the people against reaction, going further than the old state and opportunism permits them to.
Image: Demonstrators clash with ICE agents outside the Newark facility Thursday, Freedom News
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