Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka has imposed a curfew on the area surrounding Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center that has become a hotbed of controversy over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Sunday morning’s announcement came amid heightened tensions outside the detention center, which is run by private contractor GEO Group as part of a 15-year contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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“Immediate action is required to protect public safety as the situation at Delaney Hall escalates and the need for police intervention increases,” Baraka said in a statement.
“Several people have already been arrested and found in possession of weapons, highlighting the seriousness of the threat.”
As part of the curfew, people are restricted from traveling within 0.8 kilometers (0.8 kilometers) of the detention center from 9 p.m. ET to 6 a.m. ET (1 p.m. to 10 a.m. Japan time).
A nearby road, Doremus Street, will also be closed to pedestrians and vehicles who cannot prove they need to be in the area.
Since Delaney Hall reopened as an immigrant detention facility last year, it has been the scene of clashes between law enforcement and protesters, including Mayor Baraka himself.
Daily protests have been held outside Delaney Hall for more than a week in May after lawyers for Delaney Hall detainees announced that a hunger strike was underway inside.
Detainees have denounced living conditions to human rights organizations, reporting expired food, lack of medical care, and mistreatment by authorities.
The Trump administration views illegal immigrants as a criminal threat and justifies its mass deportation campaign as an effort to rid the United States of the “worst of the worst.”
But critics say many of those detained have no criminal record, and some who do have been charged with only minor offenses.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data tracking service at Syracuse University, found that as of April, about 71% of ICE detainees had no criminal convictions.
In a show of solidarity with the hunger strike, demonstrators gathered outside Delaney Hall, locking their weapons and forming a human chain, erecting barricades to prevent entry.
However, this led to a tense standoff with police, who used batons and pepper spray to clear a path to the facility.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill called for the establishment of designated protest areas to reduce the possibility of clashes between police and demonstrators.
But conflicts continue. Six protesters were arrested Wednesday night.
Politicians themselves have encountered tense exchanges at Delaney Hall.
A year ago, one protest resulted in Mayor Baraka being charged with trespassing and U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver being charged with assault after a disagreement over who should enter the facility for inspection.
Although the charges against Baraka were dropped, McIver continues to face legal proceedings. She denies the charges and claims prosecutors are politically motivated.
“One year ago, the Trump administration made baseless accusations against me for conducting surveillance to protect immigrants at Delaney Hall,” McIver wrote on social media on Saturday.
“Have they tried to silence me? Yes. Have the stakes been raised? Yes. Am I withdrawing from speaking up for you? Absolutely not.”
Last week, Governor Sherrill was also denied access to the facility. She then issued a statement calling for Delaney Hall to be shut down.
At a press conference on Saturday, she accused “domestic extremist groups” of coming in from outside the state and escalating tensions. She added that the current precautions were designed to protect the safety of peaceful protesters.
“I urge those protesting outside Delaney Hall to lower the temperature so we can focus on the detainees and their families,” Sherrill said.
She suggested that actions by state and local officials would help stem the expansion of ICE operations in New Jersey.
“We’re not going to give ICE an excuse to expand their operations in Delaney Hall or across the state. We’re not going to put lives at risk,” she said. “We would like to thank the large number of demonstrators who came together peacefully and spoke out about the situation at Delaney Hall.”
