The mayor of the US city of Newark ordered a curfew around the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in the state of New Jersey due to ongoing protests.
Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement that the curfew would be in effect between 9:00 pm local time and 6:00 am the next morning, adding that the measure would remain in place until further notice.
Pro-immigration protesters have been clashing with police at an ICE facility for days as concerns grow for the well-being of the facility’s residents.
Lawyers representing some detainees told media outlets that detainees were given expired food and did not have access to medical care. He also said his clients had begun a hunger strike over the poor conditions inside the facility, which has about 1,000 beds. The Delaney Hall center became the latest symbol of the bitter debate over US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with about 300 residents reportedly launching a hunger strike in May.
New Jersey Governor Mickey Sherrill, a Democrat, said she was denied entry when she tried to tour the center with state lawmakers last week.
In exchange for, The Department of Homeland Security has charged New Jersey politicians Of spreading “intimidation” against ICE.
New Jersey governor calls for peace
As the violence escalated, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has now imposed a nightly curfew in a half-mile (805 m) area around the facility.
On Sunday, Governor Sherrill said masked protesters attacked police barricades and threw projectiles, used the barriers as weapons and set tires on fire in the street. He said such actions “endanger peaceful protesters and law enforcement.”
He urged protesters to focus on “better conditions for the detainees, for their families, and ultimately the closure of Delaney Hall.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency that oversees U.S. immigration enforcement, said that Delaney Hall operations “will continue as usual.”
Governor Sherrill also reiterated his call to “bring down the temperature” and said the focus should be on “better conditions for detainees, their families, and ultimately closing Delaney Hall.”
Sherrill emphasizes that her state has no interest in meeting ICE agents in New Jersey “in any way.”
Edited by: Darko Janjevic
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