4 detainees have escaped from an immigration detention center in Newark, DHS says

NEWARK, N.J. — Four detainees have escaped from a federal immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, amid reports of disorder breaking out there, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

More “law enforcement partners” have been brought in to find the detainees missing from Delaney Hall, according to an emailed statement attributed to a senior DHS official whom the department did not identify. The statement also didn’t specify which law enforcement agencies are involved.

Newark’s mayor had cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night, and protesters outside the center had locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement opened a 1,000-bed facility there this year as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Photos and video from outside the facility Thursday show protesters pushing against the gates amid word that detainees inside were upset about delayed meals.

Amy Torres, executive director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said some officers sprayed pepper spray and tackled and dragged protesters away from the facility. She said some protesters had minor injuries, but no one was hit by the vehicles.

An attorney for someone detained at the facility told told NJ.com people inside became violent after meals were delayed.

“It’s about the food, and some of the detainees were getting aggressive and it turned violent,” attorney Mustafa Cetin said. “Based on what he told me it was an outer wall, not very strong, and they were able to push it down.”

Attorneys with clients inside Delaney Hall have had calls canceled and have not been able to get inside the facility Friday, according to Araceti Argueta, a spokesperson for the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit that represents immigrants.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who’s been critical of Trump’s immigration crackdown, early Friday called for an end to this “chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked.”

“We are concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees,” he said.

In a statement issued Friday, American Friends Service Committee said people inside the facility reported getting small portions of food, with breakfast at 6 a.m., dinner at 10 p.m. and no lunch.

GEO Group, which owns the facility referred questions to ICE.

ICE housed more than 53,000 people nationwide at the end of May, its latest public figures, which is well above its budgeted capacity of about 41,000 and approaching all-time highs.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said late last month that ICE should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from Jan. 20 to May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.

Delaney Hall has been the cite of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the administration and those who run the facility.

Baraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped and Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges said she was doing her job as a lawmaker conducting oversight.