Darren Lyn
13 June 2025•Update: 13 June 2025
HOUSTON, United States
Four detainees went missing following unrest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark, New Jersey, according to media reports on Friday.
They were being held at Delaney Hall, where ICE agents had been housing them pending deportation.
However, the four detainees went missing after the facility faced unrest caused by poor living conditions.
On Thursday, a group of inmates tore down a wall in one of the dormitories after complaining about a lack of food and poor living conditions.
The facility has been placed on lockdown while local law enforcement and ICE agents searched. Officials said they are unaware whether the inmates escaped or remained on the detention center grounds.
Delaney Hall made headlines last month after protests broke out at the 1,000-bed privately owned facility, and Democratic US Rep. LaMonica McIver and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka were arrested during the protests on May 9.
McIver was charged by a federal grand jury earlier this week with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with federal officials. Prosecutors dropped the trespassing charges against Baraka.
McIver said in a statement that she had "serious concerns about the reports of abusive circumstances at the facility" and that her office had reached out to ICE for answers.
Baraka released a statement about the uprising at Delaney Hall on Thursday, expressing concern for what had transpired, "ranging from withholding food and poor treatment to uprising and escaped detainees."
"(The situation) lacks sufficient oversight of every basic detail, including local zoning laws and fundamental constitutional rights," said Baraka. "This is why city officials and our congressional delegation need to be allowed entry to observe and monitor."
"Private prisons pose a very real problem to our state and its constitution," the mayor continued. "We must put an end to this chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked."
