Two people with direct knowledge of conditions inside the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center—a recently released detainee and the wife of a man still held there—told Newsweek that people inside the New Jersey facility are facing medical neglect, retaliation and unsanitary living conditions, even as ICE officials publicly deny that a hunger strike is underway.
A man detained inside Delaney Hall in Newark described a “traumatic” experience, alleging that guards accused him of tripping an officer and then punched him during the confrontation. The man, a Colombian national who requested anonymity because he fears retaliation, said he was detained at the facility for nearly a month after being arrested in April. He described what he called “very traumatic” conditions, including inadequate medical care and poor food quality.
“I was there for almost two weeks, two and a half weeks with diarrhea,” he said. “I was asking for medicines, but they didn’t give me any.”
The man was released on May 19 and said he witnessed detainees with serious medical needs who were not treated, including a man whose blood pressure he said reached “320” without intervention.
Another source, the wife of a man being detained at Delaney Hall, described similar conditions. Her husband, a 46‑year‑old detained for nearly four months, has repeatedly fallen ill, she said, contracting the flu five times and waiting days for medical requests to be processed. She said he typically receives only Tylenol.
She described food that is “mostly frozen and processed,” bathrooms that detainees must clean themselves, and periods when toilet paper runs out. She also said her husband’s unit has seen retaliation against detainees involved in a hunger strike, including an incident in which a young translator was allegedly beaten by a guard before pepper spray was deployed on others who tried to intervene. Several detainees were left bleeding and “only given water,” she said.
She added that detainees are being pressured to leave their units so officials can claim no hunger strike is taking place, despite many continuing to refuse food.
The detainee’s wife also directly contradicted federal claims that no hunger strike is taking place. She said her husband and others have confirmed that “many people are holding out” and that the strike “is still ongoing,” despite what she described as pressure from staff to leave their units so officials can assert that no organized protest exists.
Her husband’s habeas petition (a legal filing asking a judge to review whether someone’s detention is lawful) has been pending since the day he was detained.
“We want due process,” she said, adding that their children have struggled emotionally during his prolonged detention.
The allegations come as Delaney Hall has become a focal point of protests over conditions inside the facility. Advocates say more than 200 detainees have participated in a hunger and labor strike since mid‑May, citing concerns over food, medical care and sanitation. Federal officials have denied that any strike is occurring.
Outside the facility, demonstrations have escalated, with protesters attempting to block vehicles and federal agents responding with force. Advocates and witnesses say pepper balls and tear gas were used on crowds, while officials say force was deployed in response to obstruction and assaults on law enforcement.
Lawmakers who have visited Delaney Hall have described conditions as “inhumane” and New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entry during an attempted visit.
Scott Mechkowski, former deputy field office director for ICE, told Newsweek: “This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks. There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions. These alleged hunger strikes were always manufactured outrage, every single time. This is a coordinated effort by professional agitators and Democratic political hacks to obstruct ICE from carrying out their lawful mission. The sky is always falling until the cameras leave.”
He added that “this happens every time the Democrats need to distract from the great things this administration is accomplishing.”
DHS Responds to Allegations
Officials offered a sharply different account of conditions inside Delaney Hall. Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary at DHS, which oversees ICE, dismissed the allegations in emailed responses to Newsweek and said the agency cannot verify anonymous claims.
“When the media refuses to give names, it makes it impossible to provide details on specific cases or even verify that any of this even happened or that the people even exist. If you can’t do your job, we can’t do ours.”
Bis said ICE has found “no hunger strike at Delaney Hall at this time” and rejected reports of medical neglect or retaliation.
“No one is being abused or denied medical care,” she said, adding that during hunger strikes, “ICE continues to provide three meals a day…and an adequate supply of drinking water.”
She also defended the facility’s conditions, saying all detainees receive “clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” and argued that ICE detention standards exceed those of “most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
Bis further attributed the rise in habeas petitions to what she described as activist‑driven legal challenges.
“It should come as no surprise that more habeas petitions are being filed by illegal aliens—especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate.”
She said recent court decisions upholding mandatory detention “vindicated DHS’s position” and framed the agency’s current enforcement posture as a correction to what she called the “reckless” policies of the previous administration.
“President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin are now enforcing the law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
Hunger Strikes Nationwide: What to Know
Advocates say the situation at Delaney Hall is part of a broader pattern. Hunger and labor strikes have been reported at ICE facilities from California to New Jersey, with detainees protesting what they describe as unsafe or inhumane conditions.
At Adelanto in California, at least 20 detainees have refused food, citing mold, unsafe drinking water and lack of medical care. At Delaney Hall, advocates say the strike began after detainees were denied fresh food, medical attention and functioning air conditioning.
Advocacy groups say the expansion of immigration detention under the Trump administration has intensified long-standing problems. Eighteen people have died in ICE custody this year, according to advocates, and 49 have died since the start of the second Trump administration in January 2025.
Last weekend, New Jersey Democrats—Senator Andy Kim, Representative LaMonica McIver, Representative Analilia Mejia and Sherrill—joined community members outside Delaney Hall in solidarity with detainees. Advocates say ICE responded by deploying an armored vehicle and agents who used pepper balls and tear gas on demonstrators.
Detainees at Delaney Hall and Adelanto are calling for the release of all people in custody—including the elderly, young people and those with medical conditions—and for both facilities to be shut down. At Delaney Hall, detainees are also demanding a meeting with Sherrill so she can see the conditions.
Advocates Respond
Esmeralda Santos, with the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition, said detainees have long reported “a deeply troubling pattern of abuse, neglect and dehumanization,” adding that people inside have repeatedly risked retaliation to speak out.
Kathy O’Leary, New Jersey region coordinator at Pax Christi and member of the Eyes on ICE New Jersey Coalition, said detainees at Delaney Hall began organizing after Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s oversight visit in January. She said the current strike is an escalation of those efforts.
“These are our neighbors who are crying out for our governor to listen to them,” she said.
Nanci Palacios Godinez, membership and organizing director at Detention Watch Network, said the strikes highlight systemic issues across ICE detention.
“Immigration detention as a whole is unnecessary, rife with systemic abuses and completely arbitrary,” she said, adding that detainees describe conditions as “hell on Earth.”
As detainees describe a crisis that ICE officials say doesn’t exist, Delaney Hall has become a flashpoint for a much larger fight over immigration detention in the United States. With protests mounting, lawmakers demanding access and people inside insisting the strike continues, the questions surrounding conditions at the Newark facility—and the government’s response—are only becoming more urgent.
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