Proud Boys, communist groups clash at New Jersey ICE detention center protest

NEWARK, New Jersey — The ongoing unrest outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, took on a distinctly ideological tone Saturday when far-left communist-socialist activists and a far-right group clashed during ICE demonstrations, turning a protest over the center’s conditions into a broader political demonstration.

The dispute began more than a week ago, when illegal immigrant detainees wrote an open letter claiming they had been subjected to physical and psychological torture and claimed they had been denied medical care and adequate food.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly denied the allegations and released facility menus to prove that detainees were given three meals a day, with options such as chicken fajitas and Salisbury steak.

NEW JERSEY BREAKERS ARE BITTING, KICKING AND PUNCHING THE ICE STUFF AS THE DELANEY HALL SCHOOL CONTINUES; 9 MORE ARRESTED: DHS

Following violent clashes earlier in the week in which federal agents were attacked by agitators, Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill ordered the New Jersey State Police to take over security, claiming the action was necessary to protect demonstrators from an “ICE surge.”

By Saturday morning, the immigration detention center had been transformed into a fortified area surrounded by large orange plastic barricades and metal fencing.

While state officials admitted that the chaos was driven by outside agitators rather than local residents, State Attorney General Jennifer Davenport also confirmed that five of the six people arrested by state police this week were not from New Jersey.

Far-right activists confronted far-left communists and socialists at Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark, N.J., on Saturday. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

A crowd of about 200 anti-ICE demonstrators, heavily involved with far-left and socialist organizations, marched Saturday chanting “Stop the ICE Gestapo! Communist revolution!” He dominated the stage by chanting slogans. “LIVE LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!” while distributing radical literature. and “NO PAPER, NO LIMITS, NO BOSS.”

ICE supporters, including members of the far-right Proud Boys, also participated in Saturday’s protest, carrying pro-ICE flags, food and cans of water for law enforcement.

Their arrival sent a shockwave through the sizable anti-ICE crowd; Agitators on the far left immediately run towards the barriers, shouting obscenities and changing their chants to “Proud Boys go home”.

Pro-ICE supporters clashed with anti-ICE agitators during demonstrations outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, N.J., on Saturday (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Sherrill claimed that ICE’s involvement “created an incredibly dangerous situation” and added that he refused to “back down in combating the Trump administration and the threats they have made.”

Sherrill acknowledged that “national extremist groups” had infiltrated protests to create chaos and warned out-of-state actors that they were endangering the public and failing to assist detainees.

Demonstrators for and against the Delaney Hall detention center shout at each other outside the facility on Saturday in Newark, N.J. (Angelina Katsanis/AP)

“You are not helping incarcerated families and you are certainly not keeping New Jersey safe today,” the governor said. “Going forward, I urge those protesting outside Delaney Hall to lower the temperature so we can focus on detainees and their families. Follow the lawful orders of local and state law enforcement and allow advocates, faith leaders, and members of this community to continue their work here in America.”

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He added that state health inspectors had recently been prevented from seeing anything other than the facility’s kitchen and called on the Department of Homeland Security to stop pressuring detainees to sign deportation papers.