NEWARK, NJ - Amid reports of disorderly behavior at a federal immigration detention center in New Jersey, four detainees have escaped, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Newark's mayor cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility on Thursday night, June 12th, and protestors outside the center had locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through the gates, the Associated Press (AP) reported. A senior DHS official said that "more law enforcement partners" have been brought in to find the missing detainees from Delany Hall. The identities of the detainees have not yet been released.
The statement did not identify which law enforcement agencies are involved. An attorney for someone currently detained at the facility said people inside became violent after meals were delayed on Thursday evening. "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."
Some detainees allegedly fashioned a rope out of bedsheets, which they used to descend from their third-floor dormitory, the New York Post reported. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opened a 1,000-bed facility in Newark this year under a 15-year, $1 billion contract as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who's been critical of President Trump's immigration crackdown, 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.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump's immigration policies, said in May that ICE should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from January 20th to May 19th, when the agency was making an average of 656 arrests per day.
Newark's mayor cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility on Thursday night, June 12th, and protestors outside the center had locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through the gates, the Associated Press (AP) reported. A senior DHS official said that "more law enforcement partners" have been brought in to find the missing detainees from Delany Hall. The identities of the detainees have not yet been released.
The statement did not identify which law enforcement agencies are involved. An attorney for someone currently detained at the facility said people inside became violent after meals were delayed on Thursday evening. "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."
Some detainees allegedly fashioned a rope out of bedsheets, which they used to descend from their third-floor dormitory, the New York Post reported. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opened a 1,000-bed facility in Newark this year under a 15-year, $1 billion contract as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who's been critical of President Trump's immigration crackdown, 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.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump's immigration policies, said in May that ICE should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from January 20th to May 19th, when the agency was making an average of 656 arrests per day.
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