Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) was among those pepper-sprayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside a detention facility in New Jersey on Monday during demonstrations against the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
The first-term senator engaged with protesters and federal agents during a demonstration against the conditions at the Newark-based facility that Democrats say is home to an ongoing hunger strike by detainees. Kim and other New Jersey Democrats attempted to gain access to conduct an oversight visit but were rebuffed.
At one point, Kim could be seen being treated by an aid volunteer who poured water over his eyes after being pepper-sprayed, marking the latest escalation in tensions between Democratic lawmakers and the Trump administration on immigration.
“Instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions, ICE sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire,” Kim posted to social media. “Civilians were tackled and restrained, and agents fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd. This is more of the same lawlessness we’ve seen elsewhere around the country.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, rebutted what it described as “falsehoods” and “smears” from Kim and other New Jersey Democratic lawmakers and denied there was a hunger strike. Other New Jersey Democrats, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), and Gov. Mikie Sherill (D-NJ), have posted in recent days about the alleged “deplorable” conditions at the Delaney Hall facility or have attempted to gain access.
In a lengthy press release, DHS said detainees receive necessities including three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries. It went on to say that ICE detainees have communication access with families and lawyers; receive “the best healthcare they have received their entire lives”; and that facilities have “higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
“This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks,” Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are NO subprime conditions or abuse at the facility. These sanctuary politicians should be thanking ICE law enforcement for removing murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and drug traffickers from their communities. We need these sanctuary politicians to stop peddling this garbage and cooperate with us to get these criminals out of their state. These types of smears are contributing to our officers facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they remove the worst of the worst.”
MIKIE SHERRILL DENIED ACCESS TO ICE FACILITY AS DETAINEES GO ON HUNGER STRIKE
Kim went on to say that what he “witnessed and experienced today was shameful.” He called the Delaney Hall detention center a “failure.”
“The only way to make this right for our communities is to shut it down and make sure the failures we’ve seen never happen again,” he said.