Prisoners At Private ICE Jail In New Jersey Collectively Refuse Conditions Of Death

Border Czar Tom Homan wants you to know that there is definitely not a hunger strike happening at Delaney Hall—a privately run ICE jail in Newark, N.J.—and also that he condemns this non-existent strike. On his ongoing Tour de Fox, one week Homan’s telling Laura Ingraham that he’ll force-feed hunger strikers if he has to. The next, during a “Did You Assault Enough People Today?” performance review with Sean Hannity, he’s saying “there was never a hunger strike” and listing all the food he enjoyed alongside detainees during a surprise visit to the jail. “I had beans, I had green beans, I had bread and rolls, I had drinks, I had dessert.” Get it? Got it. The strike at Delaney Hall follows months of prisoners and their families sounding the alarm about conditions they describe as psychological and physical torture. Some people have languished in the jail for a year, with no due process or end in sight. Some have already secured court orders for their release. Some signed self-deportation papers rather than suffer through more detention. All of them are still stuck in the hell of Delaney. On May 22, they decided they were done waiting and launched a combined hunger and labor strike. As many as 400 people began a collective refusal to eat or to work for GEO Group, the private prison corporation and major Trump donor that runs the jail. The strike will continue, they say, at least until they meet with the governor and ICE releases pregnant, young, elderly and medically vulnerable detainees. Their ultimate goal is freedom for everyone jailed inside the detention center.