New Jersey says state police will replace federal agents outside ICE facility

Top New Jersey officials announced on Friday that the state police will be taking over policing functions from federal Immigration officers outside the contentious Delaney Hall facility, as reports surface of an influx of federal agents making their way to the area.As part of the state police’s takeover of “public safety operations” at the site, they will establish a “peaceful protected zone” for demonstrators and will have protesters “move there today”, according to New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, and attorney general, Jennifer Davenport.The announcement comes amid days of clashes between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, during which officers have pepper-sprayed, Tased and shoved protesters.Demonstrators have been outside the detention center protesting in support of detained immigrants inside the facility, who have been engaged in a hunger and labor strike demanding improved conditions. One of the strikers’ demands has been to meet with Sherrill, who has been denied entry to the privately run facility.Friday was the eighth day of the strike, marking the beginning of a weekend with further clashes and violence likely. A pro-ICE counter-protest is scheduled for Saturday morning at the site.It is unclear how the state police’s takeover from ICE to address protests will be implemented and how involved federal agents will be.The governor and attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from the Guardian, asking if state police would arrest protesters who exit the “protected zone” and whether it violates the state’s “sanctuary” policy, which limits local officials from collaborating with ICE.A source with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal agency that oversees ICE, told the Guardian on Friday that an influx of agents was arriving to the Delaney Hall facility to “defend” it. Agents from other agencies, including the FBI, are purportedly leaving their current casework and heading to the site.According to the source, agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) will also be investigating protesters at Delaney for alleged assaults against ICE officials. On Friday, HSI agents were seen guarding the facility. In days prior, officers within another component ICE had been tasked with the facility’s protection, making HSI’s arrival a new development on Friday.The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the influx of agents and the governor’s claims that the state police will be taking over the area. The FBI declined to comment for this story.For days, ICE officials have been clashing with protesters outside the facility. Demonstrators are there to support detained immigrants inside the privately run Delaney Hall facility. The detention center, run by the private prison company the GEO Group, was just opened last year and has faced repeated accusations of “inhumane” conditions by detained immigrants, families, advocates and lawmakers.Last Friday, a group of detained immigrants launched a hunger and labor strike inside the detention center, demanding improved food, medical care and for their Immigration cases to proceed. There are now more than 300 people participating in the strike, despite repeated claims by the DHS that there is no hunger strike at the facility.“We are detained, we are on hunger strike, demanding due process rights and the improvement of conditions,” a man, who participated in the hunger strike, told the Guardian in an interview on Tuesday minutes after his release. “We are not criminals. We are people who enter [the facility] with a clean record. We pay our taxes. [We are] Fathers. Mothers. Spouses of citizens with existing petitions.”New Jersey also announced on Friday that state officials will also be setting up checkpoints entering the area. The detention center is located in an industrial part of Newark, surrounded by factories and packaging plants. The road in front of the facility is busy with convoys of shipping trucks, which is repeatedly blocked as ICE officers chase protesters away from the facility driveway.