New Jersey State Police arrived Friday night at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in a riot formation and fired tear gas at anti-ICE protesters while pulling away the barriers they had erected hours before as a new “First Amendment Zone.”
Protesters attempted to use the barriers, originally meant to constrain them, as a barricade against the police advancing. Officers advanced with shields while firing sting balls and tear gas.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” the protesters chanted.
The conflict came into very close quarters, as protesters physically pushed back against the officers’ shields and threw water on them.
“First we get brutalized by f***ing ICE agents, then we get brutalized by State f***ing police!” one protester yelled.
“Get back!” New Jersey State Police yelled before unleashing mace at a man in an Allied Security uniform holding up what appears to be a body-cam. “Back the f*** up!”
A caravan of ICE agents drove through the crowd, where some attempted to block their path and were slowly driven toward the state police.
The police formed an opening to let the agents through.
One person threw a rock which struck an officer’s riot shield.
New Jersey State Police fired a final barrage of tear gas and flash grenades before retreating away, leaving the protesters to return back to the ICE facility, with the same access they had prior to the officers’ arrival.
It is unclear what objective other than escorting one caravan of ICE vehicles out and another into the facility was achieved by the NJSP’s presence.
ICE agents took back over as soon as New Jersey State Police left, firing sting balls at protesters attempting to use “free speech zone” barricades to block ICE’s driveway.
The agents ultimately confiscated the barricades, originally meant to constrain the protesters, and brought them into the facility.
Saturday night
Protesters outside the Delaney Hall ICE facility broke through the barricades as state and local police guarded behind, their second night doing so after taking over from ICE.
New Jersey State Police arrived pushing the crowd with shields, mace, and pepper spray.
Some Newark Police officers were impacted by NJSP gas.
New Jersey State Police with shields pushed back protesters who attempted to fight back with makeshift shields.
Officers deployed tear gas repeatedly to slowly push back the crowd, who often attempted to kick the canisters back.
New Jersey State Police pushed the anti-ICE protesters away from the Delaney Hall private prison.
They fired tear gas which ended up hitting the adjacent government Essex County Correctional Facility’s staff, who retreated inside.
“B*** a** governor!” one protester yelled before police fired a barrage of tear gas and continued to push them back.
Some attempted to form makeshift barricades or use blowers to repel the gas.
Horse-mounted officers pushed ahead into the protesters, some of whom attempted to distract the horses waving makeshift shields.
The horse mounted officers retreated as tear gas was fired, which protesters tried to kick back.
As police continued to push anti-ICE protesters, several escaped via the train tracks.
Meanwhile, others used traffic cones to neutralize hot tear gas canisters.
Some protesters used an accelerant to form a pile of garbage and light it on fire about a block ahead of the police line.
A woman approached the remaining protesters and told them “they have closed off the exit, we can’t leave anymore, so we must go now!”
(This was incorrect.)
This led most to leave, but the remaining protesters got into a physical fight with one another over whether to follow.
