NJ governor calls for calm after protesters clash with police at Delaney Hall

Anti-ICE demonstrators and counterprotested yell at one other outside Delaney Hall, a federal detention facility in Newark, N.J. on Saturday, May 30, 2026. Clashes between protesters and armed federal agents here have flared off and on since the Memorial Day weekend; on Friday, federal officials left the area outside the detention center so that the state police could assume control. (Vincent Alban/The New York Times)

By MAIA COLEMAN and MARK BONAMO

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill again urged demonstrators to remain peaceful early Sunday after a second straight night of clashes between protesters and law enforcement outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a curfew early Sunday around the facility, where demonstrators threw projectiles, fought over barricades, set fires and scuffled with officers from the New Jersey State Police and the Newark Police Department on Saturday evening and overnight. The detention center has, for the past week, been the site of tense protests over concerns about living conditions at the facility.

“I do not know why these individuals attacked or what they wanted to accomplish, but I refuse to let these dangerous actions detract from New Jersey’s dedication to ensuring public safety, keeping people safe from ICE, and that the people detained inside Delaney Hall are treated with dignity,” Sherrill said in a statement early Sunday, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Hours earlier, Sherrill made a similar plea, urging demonstrators to “bring the temperature down” to avoid escalating immigration enforcement operations and endangering the lives of detainees and other immigrants in the state.

Sherrill criticized the intrusion of “extremist groups” and demonstrators from outside the state, who she said had been interfering in the protests and distracting from the ultimate goal of improving conditions inside the detention center and eventually closing it.

A standoff Friday night resulted in the arrest of six demonstrators, four of whom had traveled from New York and one from Pennsylvania. The state police had assumed control of the area after negotiating the withdrawal of federal agents in hopes of restoring order.

“To the people coming from out of state to create chaos and dangerous situations, you should not be here,” Sherrill said. “You are not helping the people detained at Delaney Hall, you are not helping detainee families and you’re certainly not keeping New Jersey safe.”

Despite the calls for calm, clashes continued.

Late Saturday, protesters pressed against police barricades and shields, wielded makeshift shields of their own and at times struggled with officers for control of metal fencing. Police later deployed tear gas and flash-bang grenades as they sought to disperse the crowd.

Officers in riot gear formed shield lines outside the detention center, while mounted troopers and officers on foot worked to push demonstrators back.

Around midnight, dozens of state troopers and Newark police officers sealed off Doremus Avenue at the detention center. Officers set up metal barricades, some wearing combat boots and riot helmets, and carrying sidearms and zip-tie handcuffs.

Just after midnight, Baraka issued a curfew covering a half-mile area around the detention center. The restrictions remain in effect nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice.

A public safety alert announcing the curfew was sent to residents’ cellphones at 12:30 a.m.

The groups have clashed frequently over the past week, with protesters sometimes taunting federal agents. The agents, in turn, have tackled demonstrators, spraying chemical irritants and, in at least one case, beating a protester with a baton across the torso, thighs, knee and calves as he tried to flee.

On Wednesday, some members of a group of demonstrators were arrested, and Thursday night, a 26-year-old man from Morris County bit two agents who were trying to remove him during a scuffle outside the facility, authorities said. The man, Brendan John Geier, was charged in New Jersey federal court Friday with assaulting federal officers and causing bodily injury. He was later released with limitations and barred from returning to Delaney Hall.

A lawyer for Geier could not immediately be reached Saturday.

Relatives of detainees and immigrant advocates have said that detainees inside the facility were beaten and doused with pepper spray this past week after some inmates began a hunger strike.

The Department of Homeland Security has denied that there was a hunger strike. The agency also said that there had been a fight involving detainees inside the detention center and that jail staff had broken it up. Officials said that detainees who had been affected had been evaluated by medical workers and that no one had been seriously hurt.

Sherrill said her focus remained on gaining full access to Delaney Hall for the members of her administration, restoring visitation for families and ensuring that detainees received proper medical care.

“We can’t let what’s happening outside Delaney Hall take us away from that mission,” she said.