Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) ordered the New Jersey State Police to establish a “protest zone” outside a Newark immigration detention center on Friday in an attempt to prevent violent clashes between anti-ICE protesters and federal officers from breaking out over the weekend.
The governor said the “peaceful, protected” area outside Delaney Hall will be monitored by New Jersey law enforcement, adding that she is not willing to “give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.”
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The public safety announcement comes one week after protests at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility started.
“We’ve seen increasing violence, arrests, and pepper spray at Delaney Hall as well as public threats from the Trump administration, and we’ve seen the risk to public safety rising outside Delaney Hall,” Sherrill told reporters during a press conference at a New Jersey State Police office. “It has grown unsafe, and that is completely unacceptable.”
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, the Department of Homeland Security thanked Sherrill for allowing state police to cooperate with federal authorities after she previously declined to do so.
“This is a win for law and order,” Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said. “After days of Governor Sherrill REFUSING to allow State Police to assist ICE law enforcement against violent anti-ICE rioters, she is now allowing the New Jersey State Police to cooperate with us. Thank you, Governor.
“Assaulting and obstructing ICE law enforcement is a crime and felony,” he said. “Anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This violence against law enforcement must end.”
Last Friday, protesters began gathering at the facility in large groups after detainees led a hunger and labor strike over the detention center’s alleged poor conditions. DHS disputes the strike itself and the prison conditions that immigrant activists and Democratic politicians have described.
Sherrill and multiple New Jersey Democrats in Congress tried to enter the facility on Monday but were denied access. Three days later, the New Jersey Department of Health conducted a health inspection in a limited portion of the building. The state health officials were also denied full access to the facility. Sherrill said their findings will be shared in the near future.
In the meantime, the situation outside Delaney Hall is growing more tense. Protesters and officers have clashed for days as vehicles enter and exit the site, especially at night. This prompted DHS to deploy ICE Homeland Security Investigations personnel to guard the premises.
Notably, former Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday after teasing a visit to possibly “handle” the protests himself. A day later, he told ICE agents stationed at Delaney Hall to “hang in there.”
It remains unclear exactly what Bovino could do now that he no longer works for the federal government. The immigration official retired at the end of March following controversy surrounding his more aggressive approach to controlling anti-ICE protests and detaining illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities.
NEW JERSEY HEALTH OFFICIALS INSPECT ‘LIMITED PART’ OF DELANEY HALL: SHERRILL
Sherrill reiterated her desire to close Delaney Hall, a private-run detention center owned and operated by the GEO Group.
Tensions could get hotter on Saturday when pro-ICE and anti-ICE protesters are expected to gather outside the ICE facility in dueling demonstrations. Sherrill said the pro-ICE crowd would also be granted a police-maintained protest zone.
