Inside the Battle Over Delaney Hall: A Nonprofit, a Governor, and the Fight Over What's Happening to ICE Detainees in Newark

On June 1, 2026, a group of protesters gathered outside New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's office in Trenton. They carried signs accusing the state's first female military veteran governor of spreading "MAGA propaganda" — not because she was defending the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, but because, in their view, she wasn't doing enough to stop it [1].

The protest was organized by Cooper River Indivisible, a New Jersey-based chapter of the national Indivisible network, which receives funding through George Soros's Open Society Foundations [1]. The group's accusation — that a Democratic governor elected partly on her opposition to Trump's immigration agenda was now echoing his talking points — marks one of the stranger turns in an already volatile situation at Newark's Delaney Hall detention facility.

The underlying dispute is not simply political theater. At its center are roughly 300 detainees who launched a hunger and labor strike in late May 2026, alleging worms in their food, inadequate medical care, and retaliatory violence from guards [2][3]. How to characterize those conditions — and who bears responsibility — has become a flashpoint that reveals the limits of state power over federal immigration enforcement, the messy politics of immigration in a blue state, and the difficulty of establishing ground truth inside a facility that has repeatedly blocked inspectors, journalists, and even the governor herself.

What Happened at Delaney Hall

Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed immigration detention facility in Newark operated by the GEO Group, one of the nation's largest private prison companies, under a 15-year contract with ICE valued at approximately $1 billion [4]. The facility had been closed since 2017 but reopened in May 2025, almost immediately generating controversy.

Source: Multiple News Sources

Data as of Jun 1, 2026CSV

The city of Newark, under Mayor Ras Baraka, filed a lawsuit against GEO Group in April 2025, alleging the company was renovating the building without proper city permits and had barred city inspectors from accessing the facility [5]. City health, fire, and code enforcement officials were repeatedly turned away [6]. When inspections finally did occur weeks after the lawsuit, Newark's attorney told a federal judge they found "a couple of dozen safety issues related to plumbing, fire codes, and electricity" [5].

In May 2025, Mayor Baraka was arrested outside the facility and charged with trespassing — charges that were later dropped [4]. In June 2025, four detainees escaped following an uprising over conditions [4]. In December 2025, Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian citizen, died less than 24 hours after arriving at Delaney Hall, with ICE attributing his death to "suspected natural causes" [7].

The crisis escalated sharply in late May 2026, when approximately 300 detainees began refusing food and stopped reporting for work assignments [2]. Congressional delegations that visited the facility documented what they called "unsanitary living conditions, lack of adequate medical care and unhealthy food" [3]. Rep. Dan Goldman said detainees described "scalding hot showers that have led to burns and blisters; worms in food; and being denied medical care, visitation rights, and time outdoors" [8].

On May 27, ICE agents used pepper spray and batons against striking detainees. GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira acknowledged deploying "chemical agents" during what he described as a "physical altercation," saying staff followed ICE protocols [8]. Detainees and their families characterized the response as retaliation for the nonviolent strike [8].

The Governor's Position

Sherrill's response has been multifaceted and, depending on the audience, either insufficient or appropriately measured.

On May 24, she issued a statement saying she was "deeply disturbed by reports of the poor conditions at Delaney Hall" and calling them "completely unacceptable" [9]. She called for ICE to restore family visitations, provide appropriate medical care, and stop pressuring detainees to sign deportation documents [9].

The following day, Sherrill attempted to visit Delaney Hall — the first sitting governor to do so — but was denied entry. "My request for access to Delaney Hall was formally denied this morning, raising serious questions about what they are trying to hide from public view," she said [10]. Unlike members of Congress, a governor does not have federal oversight authority to enter a federally contracted facility. DHS dismissed her appearance as "nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day" [10].

As protests outside the facility intensified, Sherrill's tone shifted toward public safety. On May 29, she announced that state police would establish a "peaceful protest zone" and take over crowd control from ICE agents [11]. But what followed was anything but peaceful: state police deployed rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash-bang grenades against protesters [12]. Newark Mayor Baraka imposed a mandatory curfew within a half-mile radius of the facility [13].

At a press conference on May 31, Sherrill blamed "out-of-state agitators" for the violence, noting that five of six people arrested were from New York and Pennsylvania [11]. "To the people coming from out of state to create chaos and dangerous situations: You should not be here," she said. "You are not helping the people detained at Delaney Hall, you are not helping detainee families and you are certainly not keeping New Jersey safe" [11].

This framing drew sharp criticism. Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch compared the "outside agitators" language to rhetoric used by segregationists during the civil rights era and argued that Sherrill's state police deployment contradicted her stated goal of lowering the temperature [12]. The ACLU of New Jersey called the response "an unnecessary response to free speech and the right to peaceful protest" [12].

The Nonprofit's Accusation

Cooper River Indivisible organized the June 1 protest outside Sherrill's office, declaring: "WE ARE HEADING TO MIKIE SHERRILL'S OFFICE — to demand that she answer for the mess that she has made" [1].

The group's core accusation is that Sherrill's deployment of state police, her framing of protesters as outsiders, and her failure to take more aggressive action against the facility amount to spreading "MAGA propaganda" [1]. They charged that "Governor Sherrill's response has caused serious harm inside and outside of Delaney Hall. Peaceful protestors and journalists have been arrested, injured, and had their constitutional rights violated" [1].

The group also accused Sherrill of "inciting violence by siccing the police on peaceful protestors" [1].

Cooper River Indivisible directs donors to the Indivisible Project, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that works with its 501(c)(3) sister organization, Indivisible Civics [14]. The Indivisible Project has received over $8 million from George Soros's Open Society Foundations and related entities, including a $3 million two-year grant in 2023 from the Open Society Action Fund [14][15]. Fox News and other conservative outlets have emphasized the Soros funding connection, while the group characterizes itself as a grassroots organization [1].

The specific dollar amount flowing from the national Indivisible Project to Cooper River Indivisible, a local chapter, is not publicly documented. The funding chain — from Soros to Open Society to Indivisible to a local chapter — involves multiple intermediaries, making it difficult to draw a direct line between Soros's money and this particular protest.

What Independent Evidence Shows

The most reliable evidence about conditions comes from congressional oversight visits, city inspection records, and reporting by outlets with direct access to detainees.

Congressional delegations including Sen. Andy Kim and Rep. Rob Menendez visited Delaney Hall and reported overcrowding, lack of adequate medical care, and contaminated food [3][4]. The Marshall Project documented detainees with cancer and diabetes unable to access treatment, and pregnant women denied OB-GYN care [6]. NBC New York reported accounts of miscarriages inside the facility [16].

City inspectors who eventually gained access found dozens of safety violations [5]. The death of Jean Wilson Brutus in December 2025 prompted calls for an independent investigation that, as of this writing, has not been publicly completed [7].

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin flatly denied the allegations, stating "there is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall" and "there are no subprime conditions," asserting that detainees receive three daily meals, medical care, and phone access [17]. GEO Group characterized the complaints as part of a "politically motivated campaign" [8].

The gap between these accounts is significant. The DHS position — that conditions meet or exceed standards — is contradicted by the congressional accounts, the city inspection findings, and multiple detainee testimonies. But the full picture remains incomplete because the facility has systematically resisted independent oversight, turning away city inspectors, blocking the governor, and limiting media access [6][10].

The Limits of Gubernatorial Authority

A central question in this dispute is what Sherrill can actually do. ICE detention facilities are federally contracted operations. A state governor has no direct authority to close one, inspect one, or dictate its operational standards.

Sherrill has taken concrete actions within her authority. In February 2026, she signed Executive Order 12, barring ICE from operating on state-owned property — including office buildings, parking lots, and parkways — without a judicial warrant [18]. The order also prohibited use of state property as a "staging area, processing location, or operations base" for immigration enforcement [18].

The Trump administration responded within two weeks by filing a lawsuit against New Jersey, arguing the order violated the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution [18]. Sherrill pushed back: "I think what the federal government needs to be focused on right now, instead of attacking states like New Jersey working to keep people safe, is actually training their ICE agents with some modicum of training" [18].

She has also publicly called for closing Delaney Hall and opposed a proposed expansion facility in Roxbury [10]. But critics from the left argue these actions are insufficient — that she could, for example, direct the state attorney general to investigate conditions, use state regulatory authority over the building itself, or refuse to deploy state police to protect a facility she claims to oppose [12].

The Political Context

Sherrill won the 2025 gubernatorial election as a Democrat in a state that leans blue but where immigration politics are contested. She defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli and was inaugurated in January 2026 as New Jersey's first Democratic female governor [19].

Her campaign emphasized opposition to Trump's immigration policies, but also stressed affordability, property taxes, and government accountability [19]. She is a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor — a background that has shaped both her appeal to moderate voters and the criticism that she defaults to law-enforcement frameworks.

Polling data suggests Sherrill's approach risks alienating her base. A Stockton University poll from February 2026, surveying 700 registered New Jersey voters, found that 67% believe immigration enforcement has "gone too far," while only 12% said it has not gone far enough [20]. Fifty-nine percent said ICE's tactics are making communities less safe [20]. The partisan divide is stark: 96% of Democrats and 19% of Republicans said enforcement has gone too far [20].

Source: Stockton University Polling Institute

Data as of Feb 16, 2026CSV

These numbers suggest that Sherrill's pivot toward public-safety language and her deployment of state police against protesters at an ICE facility may be out of step with her own party's voters, even if it plays well with the smaller slice of swing voters she courted in the general election.

The Steelman Cases

For the nonprofit's accusation: There is a documented pattern of elected officials using incomplete or misleading data about detention conditions. DHS Secretary Mullin's categorical denial of the hunger strike — contradicted by extensive reporting and congressional testimony — illustrates how official talking points can diverge from reality. When Sherrill echoes the "outside agitators" frame and deploys state police against protesters outside a facility she claims to want closed, she is, at minimum, providing cover for the federal enforcement apparatus. The nonprofit's argument is that the effect of her actions matters more than her stated intentions.

For Sherrill's position: The governor faces a genuine public safety dilemma. Protests did involve participants from outside New Jersey. Some demonstrators did deploy fireworks and gas canisters at law enforcement, according to the state attorney general [11]. Sherrill has no federal authority to enter or close Delaney Hall, and she has taken the concrete steps available to her — an executive order limiting ICE operations on state property, public calls for facility closure, and attempts to gain access. The DOJ lawsuit against her executive order is itself evidence that the federal government views her actions as meaningfully obstructive. A governor who tries to maintain order while opposing federal policy is not automatically acting in bad faith.

What Remains Unclear

Several critical questions lack definitive answers. How many detainees are currently held at Delaney Hall — reports range from "about 300" to references to the 1,000-bed capacity — and their countries of origin and legal statuses have not been comprehensively reported [4][16]. The rate of serious medical incidents compared to national averages for ICE facilities is not available in public data, partly because ICE has restricted transparency mechanisms [6].

Whether Sherrill's public statements have evolved in a pattern of selective citation is difficult to assess because her office did not respond to multiple media inquiries about the nonprofit's specific accusations [1]. The full results of any DHS Office of Inspector General review of Delaney Hall have not been made public.

The mediation between Newark and GEO Group was ordered completed by June 15 [5]. Its outcome may determine whether the city can exercise meaningful regulatory authority over the facility — or whether Delaney Hall continues to operate in what amounts to an oversight vacuum, with conditions inside documented primarily through the accounts of detainees and the limited access granted to sympathetic lawmakers.