Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said he was pepper-sprayed Monday as demonstrators swarmed outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention facility in Newark, during a tense scene involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Videos circulating online showed mutual aid volunteers pouring water into Kim’s eyes while he held an ice pack. Other clips appeared to show Kim talking directly to ICE agents near a detained individual and then turning to address protesters outside the facility.
Kim later described what he said was a volatile standoff at the detention center, where about 300 migrants are holding what advocates call a hunger and work strike over conditions inside the facility.
“Detainees protesting the lack of due process, the disgusting food and poor treatment while their families and advocates stood outside calling for help,” Kim wrote on X. “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 said he saw ICE agents tackle and restrain demonstrators, while “agents fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd.”
“What I witnessed and experienced today was shameful,” Kim said. “Delaney Hall is a failure; it’s this administration’s 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.”
Kim was at the site alongside other New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Nellie Pou, for what lawmakers described as an oversight visit. Sherrill and Menendez said they were denied access after they initially arrived. Photos showed multiple elected officials outside the building speaking with demonstrators.
No individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles.
On May 25, 2026, rioters obstructed law enforcement from exiting the ICE facility. Officers issued multiple lawful verbal commands for rioters to clear the area. Rioters refused to follow law enforcement commands… https://t.co/gNACHGgItm
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) May 26, 2026
Kim told the New Jersey Globe that the spray made it difficult to breathe and said other officers used batons to push the crowd back.
“What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country,” Kim told NJ.com. “It’s sad, it’s a sad day.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Kim was allowed inside after he called Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The spokesperson did not confirm whether Sherrill or the other lawmakers were granted entry.
Mullin disputed the claims driving the protest, posting on X that there was no hunger strike at the facility and calling the Democrats’ appearance at Delaney Hall a “political stunt.”
Protesters have gathered outside Delaney Hall since Friday, when organizer Gabriela Soto arrived at the facility at the start of the hunger and work strike, the New York City-based outlet The City reported.
“The people inside Delaney Hall are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and members of our community,” Soto, whose husband has been detained there since February, told the outlet. “In New Jersey, we believe in the rule of law and that everyone deserves to be treated with basic dignity. We have a duty to safeguard the rights, health, and well-being of everyone within our borders.”
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