Over the last week, the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark has become a powderkeg, with a hunger strike inside the facility’s gates and clashes between protesters and law enforcement outside of them. New Jersey’s Democratic members of Congress – who have a legal right to conduct unannounced visits at the facility – have been there nearly every day, highlighting alleged abuses and decrying the Trump administration.
But as tensions escalate, the facility has also become something of a campaign-trail stop for congressional candidates of both parties running in tomorrow’s primary elections. Although none of them have the ability to set foot inside the facility itself, and many of them are seeking to represent districts nowhere near Newark, they say it’s important for them to see the situation for themselves.
Brian Varela, a Democratic candidate for the 7th congressional district, said that he’s been to Delaney Hall around five times in total, including several times in the last week. A progressive running in one of the country’s most competitive districts, Varela said his would-be constituents are looking for a “fighter” who is willing to stand up to ICE.
“It’s important for anyone who wants to be in public service, and who wants to serve people, to show leadership by being out there and standing there in solidarity, as uncomfortable and terrifying as it might be,” Varela said.
Of the four Democrats running for the 7th district, Varela is the only one who’s paid a visit to Delaney Hall in recent days, but he’s been joined by plenty of other candidates from around the state. 12th district candidates Sue Altman and Adam Hamawy have both been to the facility, as has 8th district candidate Mussab Ali, who said he’s gone to Delaney Hall every night since the hunger strike began.
“What we’re witnessing is a concentration camp in our state, and I’m there to bear witness to what’s happening inside, and to stand in solidarity with the people who are inside,” Ali said.
Ali’s foe in tomorrow’s primary, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), has also been at the forefront of anti-Delaney Hall activism; he was part of the trio of Democrats who conducted the first ill-fated oversight visit last May, and made another visit with Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, just yesterday. But Ali argued the state’s incumbents could and should do more – like conducting oversight in shifts, for example, so that there would always be a member of Congress inside the facility.
Both Varela and Ali were also critical of the way that Gov. Mikie Sherrill and the New Jersey State Police have handled recent protests. While they acknowledged that there are indeed a small number of agitators intent on sowing chaos, they said that the State Police’s response was wildly disproportionate to the threat posed by protesters.
“These people are literally sitting in a circle singing Kumbaya,” Varela said. “And you’re throwing tear gas and pepper spray at these people?”
It’s not just Democrats, though, who want to know what’s going down outside Delaney Hall, which was controversially reopened a year ago and now houses hundreds of immigrant detainees. Alex Zdan, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, visited the facility last Friday and said that Democratic protesters and politicians are making a bad situation worse.
“It’s become a pilgrimage site, apparently, to pledge your fealty to illegal migrants who have broken the law to come into our country,” Zdan said. “As a Democrat, you need to stand there and decry these conditions. I think it’s appalling.”
“And I think it’s something that the Democratic Party is going to suffer for at the ballot box,” he added. “The average voter that you speak to – they want law and order. They don’t want chaos.”
Rosie Pino, who’s running for the GOP nomination in the 9th district, held a pro-ICE rally outside Delaney Hall over the weekend. And later today, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) will conduct a proper oversight visit at the facility, making him the first of New Jersey’s GOP congressmen to do so.
In an era when the slogan “abolish ICE” has become a mainstay for many Democrats, making the trip to Delaney Hall has inevitable political connotations. What better way to show voters that you’ll fight back against ICE than going directly toe-to-toe with them at their New Jersey headquarters?
Ali, though, insisted that his motives – and those of his opponent, for that matter – transcend typical politics.
“This is an issue that goes beyond politics, goes beyond the campaign,” he said. “I don’t want people to look at this issue and say, ‘They’re both just doing this because of the politics around this election.’ I firmly believe that both Congressman Menendez and myself are doing this because we recognize how important the issue is.”