NEWARK, United States (AFP) — New Jersey state authorities announced Friday they were taking charge of security outside a US immigration detention center after clashes between ICE agents and protesters angered by conditions faced by detainees inside.
Days of unrest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark have led to arrests as a tough stance by US President Donald Trump’s administration on immigration policy continues to draw opposition — including from authorities in Democratic-led states.
At least 17 people have been arrested during scuffles with federal agents over the past three nights, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
“Approximately 100 anti-ICE rioters gathered around the Delaney Hall ICE facility. Rioters bit, kicked, and punched law enforcement officers,” Mullin wrote on X after clashes on Thursday evening. He complained that state police were not deployed to assist ICE officers.
Footage from US media outlets showed scuffles between protesters and law enforcement, who used pepper spray.
On Friday, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport told a press conference: “Our state police will be taking public safety operations over from ICE outside Delaney Hall this afternoon.”
Democratic state Governor Mikie Sherrill added: “We’ve seen the risk to public safety rising outside of Delaney Hall, it has grown unsafe, and that’s completely unacceptable.”
“We all need to do everything we can to cool things down now. I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.”
Delaney Hall is a private, 1,000-bed facility used exclusively by ICE that has operated since 2025 as the Trump administration pressed its campaign to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
New Jersey, on the US East Coast, is a so-called “sanctuary state,” voluntarily limiting its cooperation with federal immigration authorities.