One day after the mayor of Newark said the city’s police department would scale back its presence outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center, a melee broke out in front of it between dozens of protesters and employees of the Geo Group, a private prison company that operates the facility.
Unlike previous confrontations at Delaney Hall, many of which happened at night, the altercation on Friday happened in broad daylight, at around 5:30 p.m. Scrums of people punched and tackled one another to the ground. Several protesters were also pepper sprayed by Geo Group employees. The fights were broken up by other protesters and Geo Group workers.
There were no officers from the Newark Police Department or the New Jersey State Police present throughout the melee, which sprawled across Doremus Avenue, the busy industrial thoroughfare where Delaney Hall is located. The closest law enforcement presence appeared to be a number of Newark police cars parked about a quarter of a mile north of Delaney Hall, where officers were controlling traffic.
Minutes after the fight ended, a number of Newark police cars arrived. Officers arrested one protester, placed him in a police vehicle and drove away, once again leaving no local or state law enforcement officers present at the scene. Separately, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement exited Delaney Hall soon after the melee, took a male protester into custody, and brought him into the facility.
Officials with the Newark Police Department, the New Jersey State Police and ICE did not immediately respond to questions about the incident. Sean Higgins, a spokesman for Governor Mikie Sherrill, referred questions about law enforcement at Delaney Hall to the mayor, Ras Baraka. After the police left, several protesters toppled a barrel of sand, which had been placed in the middle of the street to control traffic.
Mayor Baraka said on Thursday that the city police department would scale back its presence outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center, where local, state and federal officers have confronted protesters on and off for the past two weeks at demonstrations that have sometimes turned chaotic.
Mr. Baraka said the city would not spend local taxpayers’ money “in an already strapped budget to safeguard a privately owned facility, especially when it places our officers at unnecessary risk.”
The mayor took credit for what he called a “significant reduction in unrest” in recent days and said in a statement that starting on Friday, the Newark police “will focus on traffic management and public safety, ensuring the protection of both protesters and motorists.”
Before the altercations on Friday, it was not immediately clear whether ICE or the New Jersey State Police, both of which have clashed with demonstrators during this wave of protests, would increase their presence at Delaney Hall. Usually, the state police will assist municipal law enforcement only upon request, so Newark would need to reach out if it wanted help from the state.
Sean Higgins, a spokesman for Ms. Sherrill, said in response to questions about the state police’s plans that “the governor’s focus is on fighting for humane treatment for detainees and their families inside Delaney Hall. Newark is keeping us updated on the situation outside the facility, and we continue to urge all those protesting to remain peaceful.”
Before the violence erupted, ICE said in a statement that “the perimeter around Delaney Hall is FULLY closed. No rioters have breached the perimeter. Our ICE operations continue undeterred. ANYONE who attempts to obstruct law enforcement or disrupt our operations will be prosecuted and face justice.”
Since the mayor lifted the curfew on Tuesday, three people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of assaulting a police officer and setting a dumpster fire. On Thursday night, tensions flared again when protesters briefly blocked a road with metal barricades.
And before the melee began on Friday, a small group of protesters stood at the end of a driveway at Delaney Hall and tried to physically block Geo Group employees and vehicles from leaving.
The policing of the protests at Delaney Hall, where at least 90 people have been arrested since May 26, has been complicated and contentious. Delaney Hall is one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the Eastern United States and has been a magnet for opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. It is also in a very Democratic city in a Democrat-led state, and both Mr. Baraka and Ms. Sherrill have at times joined with the protesters.
Last week, after several days of clashes between protesters and federal agents who fired pepper balls and spray to control the crowds, Ms. Sherrill sent in the state police to de-escalate the situation. But last Friday, after demonstrators shoved barricades at officers, threw bottles of liquid and set fires, state troopers charged the crowd and set off smoke grenades.
After Mr. Baraka instituted a 9 p.m. curfew on Sunday, 61 protesters were arrested on charges of violating the curfew, rioting and resisting arrest. On Friday, the New Jersey public defender’s office moved to dismiss charges against 45 of those 61 protesters, arguing that the complaints against them were so generic and similar that they failed to articulate any probable cause to charge the individual defendants.
Lexi Parra and Mark Bonamo contributed reporting.
Andy Newman has reported from the New York region for The Times for more than 30 years.
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