White House border czar Tom Homan on Monday said most anti-ICE protesters engaging in violence at Delaney Hall, the immigration detention center in Newark, are not from New Jersey.
Most of the protesters come from other Democratic states, according to the Trump administration’s top immigration official.
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“These are paid protesters,” Homan said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends. “We’ve got facial recognition of people from Portland … and many from Minnesota.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently made a similar statement, calling the protesters from as far away as Portland “well-organized” and “well-supplied” and disputing the notion that they are peaceful. One federal agent was reportedly punched in the face this past weekend.
Minnesota, Oregon, and other Democratic-leaning states have seen most of the violent protests with federal immigration enforcement since last year, especially at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. Delaney Hall is the latest site to see such protests; the tense situation at the facility has lasted for more than two weeks.
Homan said the protests outside Delaney Hall are “well-planned,” adding that they aren’t “homegrown.” Though he noted there are a lot of local residents who are protesting, the border czar stressed that much of the criminal activity at the ICE facility is coming from out-of-state agitators.
At least six people participating in the protests were arrested over the weekend, per a local report. One person was from Colorado and another from Connecticut, while the rest were from New Jersey or New York. Additionally, two of the six people arrested were previously arrested on charges of rioting and failing to disperse.
NEW JERSEY CHARGES OFFICER IN THEFT OF AP JOURNALIST’S CAMERA BAG AT DELANEY HALL PROTEST
In an altercation late last month, a New Jersey man was arrested and charged with kicking and biting ICE officers. Separately, a man from Brooklyn faces federal charges for allegedly threatening to kill an ICE officer and his family.
