cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47588367

On Friday, a coalition of over a dozen press freedom groups condemned the May 31 arrests of at least three journalists covering the protests at Delaney Hall immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey, calling for their charges to be dropped.

Photojournalists covering the protests say they have been deliberately targeted for assault by ICE agents and police — with at least 42 assaults and five instances of officers damaging journalists’ equipment, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented brutality against journalists at Delaney Hall since the protests began on May 22, detailing numerous cases of officers pushing members of the press, burning them with chemical irritants and smoke grenades, spraying them with teargas, and striking them with batons.

This documentation gives lie to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s (D) claim that the protests have become violent due to “outsiders.”

Many of these assaults occurred last Sunday night, when police surrounded protesters outside of Delaney Hall and arrested at least 46 people after the mayor of Newark had instituted a curfew. But journalists were exempt from the curfew.

In that incident, state police demanded that the press leave. Protesters, in turn, chanted “press don’t leave.”

When an officer reported over his radio that the press would not go far enough away, he was told, “If they refuse to move, push them back yourselves.”

The three who remained with the group were arrested, and one was injured and taken to a hospital.

…

Meanwhile, people imprisoned inside Delaney Hall have been waging a labor and hunger strike against the inhumane conditions inside the jail for the past two weeks. On Sunday, striking detainees released a letter detailing the retaliation they’ve faced.

“Since the strike began, we have been subjected to reprisals, discrimination, mockery, mistreatment, and threats, mainly from ‘GEO’ staff,” they wrote in a handwritten letter that has been translated from Spanish. GEO Group is a private prison company that manages Delaney Hall.

“They constantly threaten to deport us, transfer us to punishment units, and move us from one detention center to another” and “tell us that we have no rights here,” the letter goes on.

The letter describes how, at the start of the strike, GEO Group administrators asked to speak with the leaders of the strike. “They were upset when we told them there was no leader and that the strike was a collective effort,” the letter says.

…

Protesters have expressed outrage at Sherrill for failing to address the conditions of those being detained, and for replacing ICE with state police outside of Delaney.

“The first ten days of the hunger strike were a real test for Mikie Sherrill,” which she “failed, by imposing state violence on media and protesters,” Isaac Jimenez, secretary of the Union of Rutgers Administrators (URA-AFT), who has been involved in labor organizing to support Delaney Hall detainees, told Truthout.

On Thursday, likely due to the continuation of the hunger strike and protests, Sherrill announced a $12 million increase in funding for New Jersey’s Detention Deportation Defense Initiative, providing free legal representation.

“This was a demand from the movement, and the hunger strikers pushed it over the edge into the finish line,” Jimenez said. “The fact that the governor is giving it the OK now is a real testament to the effectiveness of a hunger strike and the hunger strikers.”

Ultimately, however, the protesters and detainees are still demanding freedom for those in Delaney Hall and the closure of the immigration jail.