NJ Governor Blinks, State Police Move In

New Jersey state police arrested dozens of anti-ICE demonstrators outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark late Sunday night, according to Breitbart News and Fox News reports. The crackdown came after weeks of organized daily protests that had escalated into violent skirmishes.

The decisive factor: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to pull customs officers from Newark Liberty International Airport if the state didn't restore order. That threat worked.

Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill — who previously had stayed hands-off — ordered state police to clear the area. The move drew immediate backlash from progressive groups and fellow Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others who had been calling for Delaney Hall's closure, not its protection.

According to Fox News, the protest operation outside Delaney Hall was organized and logistically prepped — not a spontaneous demonstration. Organizers had supplies and structured roles. Police dismantled it in one night once given the green light.

Sherrill's capitulation is the central story here. For weeks, state and local officials in New Jersey gave protesters wide berth. One federal threat to airport operations changed the calculation overnight. That tells you everything about where the actual leverage sits.

Federal Judge to ICE: You Don't Get to Hide Your Own Reasoning from Courts

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sanket Bulsara of the Eastern District of New York issued a blistering order in Nazarenko v. Genalo, a habeas corpus case involving an ICE detainee. According to Reason's Volokh Conspiracy, ICE filed a custody determination document — the legal basis for holding the petitioner — with key sections redacted, including the date and time of arrest and the entire "Discussion" section outlining the dangerousness finding.

ICE claimed it had been "authorized" to make those redactions. The judge rejected that claim.

"ICE expected the Court to accept that it properly conducted an evaluation of Petitioner's dangerousness, and the basis for detaining Petitioner, but shield its rationale from the Court," Bulsara wrote. "Such practices are repugnant to the rule of law."

The judge warned ICE that further obfuscation would result in sanctions against the agency. He then denied the government's motion to seal the unredacted version, rejecting the claimed "law enforcement privilege" outright.

The legal principle is straightforward: you cannot use a document to justify detaining someone and then refuse to let the court — or the detainee — see what's in it. This transcends partisan debate. It's basic due process, and a conservative legal framework respects it.

To its credit, the U.S. Attorney's Office did produce the unredacted version when ordered. But the fact that ICE filed a document supporting indefinite civil detention with the justification literally blacked out is government overreach that should concern anyone focused on limiting federal power.

DHS Can't Get Its Story Straight on the Hunger Strike

Inside Delaney Hall, immigrant advocacy group Cosecha published a handwritten letter reportedly signed by nearly 300 detainees, alleging spoiled food with worms, inadequate medical care for detainees with HIV, cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions, and COVID-19 spreading through the facility. The Guardian reported the hunger strike had reached its ninth day as of Saturday, according to Reason.

Last Tuesday, an official DHS social media account posted that there was "NO HUNGER STRIKE" at Delaney Hall. Full stop.

That same day, White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that if detainees pushed it far enough, the government would force-feed them. "We will get a court order and force-feed them," Homan said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem offered a different explanation at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday: there were "only a handful" of detainees refusing to eat, and it was because they wanted their "ethnic right food." "They can go back to their country and get whatever food they want," Noem said.

Attorneys for the detainees disputed that characterization. According to Reason, lawyers said "many detainees have been subjected to having worms in their food" — a basic food safety issue, not a cultural preference.

Three different official positions in three days, with fundamental contradictions. An administration seeking credibility on border enforcement cannot offer conflicting factual accounts of what happens inside a facility under its control.

Federal Court Order Gets Little Attention

Right-leaning outlets have focused on the protest arrests, which is legitimate news. Left-leaning outlets have amplified the hunger strike claims. The federal court order threatening ICE with sanctions for hiding its own detention justifications has received minimal coverage across the spectrum. A federal judge taking action against an agency for concealing its reasoning in a detention case has institutional significance regardless of ideology.

Three Fronts

Delaney Hall is now a three-part story: street-level protest shut down the moment the government applied real pressure, a judicial confrontation over whether ICE can detain people while hiding its reasons, and a facility where federal officials cannot agree on basic facts about what is happening inside.

Both immigration enforcement and governmental accountability matter. An administration that wants credibility needs to explain itself to the courts.