New Jersey Sends State Police to Delaney Hall After Anti-ICE Clashes Spiral Out of Control

New Jersey Democrats spent days hammering ICE and demanding access to Delaney Hall. Now the scene outside the Newark detention center has gotten so out of hand that even the state’s Democratic governor is sending in the State Police.

The anti-ICE crowd got the law-and-order response it earned.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced State Police would create designated protest zones and set up vehicle checkpoints outside the facility after clashes between demonstrators and federal immigration officers intensified.

Her own words tell the story. Sherrill said the situation had grown unsafe and that officials needed to lower the temperature.

While Sherrill scrambled to contain the chaos, the Justice Department made clear that alleged attacks on ICE officers are now drawing criminal charges.

Today @TheJusticeDept charged rioter Brendan John Geier for allegedly kicking and biting ICE officers at Delaney Hall last night. We will not tolerate the vicious attacks on ICE officers we’ve seen in New Jersey the last few days. These riots are clearly not “peaceful protests”… pic.twitter.com/1GrkktCW5E

— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) May 29, 2026

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on May 29, 2026, that DOJ charged Brendan John Geier for allegedly kicking and biting ICE officers at Delaney Hall.

Blanche said the department would not tolerate the attacks on ICE officers seen in New Jersey in recent days, and he flatly rejected the idea that these were peaceful protests.

The Associated Press included the governor’s direct warning and the street-level mechanics:

Source excerpt: Sherrill said, “It has grown unsafe, and that’s completely unacceptable.” She added, “We need to take this opportunity to lower the temperature.”

The same article places that warning outside Delaney Hall, a Newark immigration detention center where demonstrations, arrests, and confrontations with federal immigration officers had built over several days. The policy response described there was not a vague promise to monitor the scene from a distance.

It was a concrete law-enforcement setup outside the facility: designated protest zones, vehicle checkpoints, and traffic controls around Delaney Hall. The article also connects the unrest to detainee advocates’ claims about a hunger strike inside the 1,000-bed facility.

The street picture was specific as well. Demonstrators had blocked people and vehicles, linked arms, and used trash cans, umbrellas, and other materials as barricades or shields, while ICE officers used pepper spray and batons to clear the roadway.

For readers, the important operational detail is that the state response is happening at the gate and in the surrounding traffic pattern. That makes the move a public-safety intervention around the protest zone rather than a change in who controls the detention facility itself.

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That is a remarkable admission from a Democratic governor whose party has spent weeks treating the facility as a rallying point.

State police will take over from ICE to monitor protests at Delaney Hall in Newark https://t.co/6ge8qL4HgB pic.twitter.com/1vgcgp8q5G

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) May 29, 2026

CBS New York included the state’s own words on the new protest zone and checkpoints:

Source excerpt: Sherrill said, “I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.” Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said, “Violence either against protesters or by protesters is unacceptable.”

The local article puts those quotes inside a broader Friday announcement from New Jersey officials. Sherrill said the area outside Delaney Hall had seen increasing violence, arrests, pepper spray, public threats from the Trump administration, and a rising public-safety risk.

Davenport’s operational answer was State Police supervision of the protest zones and checkpoints meant to reduce vehicle traffic near the facility. She also urged the public to stay safe and exercise their rights peacefully.

The scene described around Delaney Hall was still active. Protesters continued gathering Friday, some carried gas masks, and a nearby tent had supplies including eye solution and paper towels after another tense overnight standoff between ICE agents and demonstrators.

The change concerns crowd control and public safety outside the building. The reporting does not say State Police are replacing ICE inside the facility.

Delaney Hall sits at the center of the national fight over President Trump’s immigration enforcement, and the stakes here are bigger than one parking lot in Newark.

Axios laid out the national DHS test around Delaney Hall:

Source excerpt: Axios called Delaney Hall the “first major clash” under Mullin’s leadership and quoted his claim that the backlash had “nothing to do with the conditions at the facility.”

The piece frames Delaney Hall as more than a local Newark protest site. It describes a 1,000-bed facility that reopened under the second Trump administration and quickly became central to the national immigration debate.

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It also notes the competing claims around conditions inside the facility. DHS says detainees receive three meals a day, clean water, clothing, and other resources, while Make the Road New Jersey’s Nedia Morsy told the outlet the hunger strike involved 300 detained community members seeking release.

That is why the fight matters politically. The facility is now a test of Mullin’s DHS leadership, a target for Democratic lawmakers and activists, and a pressure point in President Trump’s larger immigration enforcement push.

The Axios context also puts the Delaney Hall dispute inside the administration’s second-term detention buildout. The fight over one Newark facility is being used by both sides as a symbol for where federal immigration enforcement is headed next.

Mullin is not backing down, and he is putting numbers behind the federal posture.

‘LAW AND ORDER WILL PREVAIL’: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the arrest of nine people outside the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark, NJ, after a group of anti-ICE rioters surrounded the facility and allegedly assaulted federal officers. pic.twitter.com/IlFFccFpmX

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) May 29, 2026

NEWSMAX posted on May 29, 2026, that Mullin announced the arrest of nine people outside Delaney Hall after federal officials said anti-ICE rioters surrounded the facility and allegedly assaulted federal officers.

His message was simple: law and order will prevail.

The pattern is hard to miss. Activists picked the fight, the crowd outside Delaney Hall escalated, and the arrests and federal charges followed.

Now a Democratic governor is sending in the State Police to do what should have happened from the start, which is keep the peace and protect the officers doing their jobs.