4 detainees escaped from immigration detention center in New Jersey, DHS says

NEWARK, N.J. — Four detainees broke through a wall and escaped from a federal immigration detention center in Newark, amid reports of disorder breaking out there, according to Sen. Andy Kim and the Department of Homeland Security.

Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, spoke Friday outside the Delaney Hall detention center. He said he was told detainees managed to break through an interior wall that led to an exterior one and from there were able to escape to a parking lot.

More “law enforcement partners” have been brought in to find the detainees missing from Delaney Hall, according to an emailed statement attributed to a senior DHS official whom the department did not identify. The statement also didn’t specify which law enforcement agencies are involved, and authorities haven’t released the names of the escapees.

DHS identified the four escapees as two Colombian men who were arrested on burglary and other counts and two Hondurans, Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, who were arrested on aggravated assault and other charges.

Newark’s mayor cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.

GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the facility for the federal government, said in a statement that there’s “no widespread unrest” at the facility.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened a 1,000-bed facility there this year under a 15-year, $1 billion contract as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Protest at the detention center

Photos and video from outside the facility Thursday showed protesters pushing against the gates amid word that detainees inside were upset about delayed meals.

Amy Torres, executive director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said some officers pepper sprayed, tackled and dragged protesters away from the facility. She said some protesters had minor injuries, but no one was hit by the vehicles.

Mustafa Cetin, an attorney for a client who’s been detained in Delaney Hall for about two weeks, told The Associated Press that things turned violent late Thursday afternoon after detainees’ meals arrived hours late.

“Apparently the guards lost control of them,” Cetin said. “And they started to, you know, create a disturbance. They came back up to the third floor, where my client is. Basically, they blocked off cameras, security cameras, and some of them made their way into a housing unit with a very thin, shallow wall, and they knocked it out.”

Kim said he had heard about problems related to food and an odor in the water. Kim also said it seems as if there will be “major movements” of detainees out of the facility over the next 24 hours. He said he was seeking “full confirmation” about that.

A message seeking comment was left with the Homeland Security Department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Attorneys with clients inside Delaney Hall have had calls canceled and weren’t able to get inside the facility Friday, according to Araceti Argueta, a spokesperson for the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit that represents immigrants.

Reports of inmates not getting enough food

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who’s been critical of Trump’s immigration crackdown, early Friday called for an end to this “chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked.”

“We are concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees,” he said.

In a phone interview Friday, Baraka pointed to the city’s lawsuit against GEO Group and said it didn’t have the proper city permits to operate. The company has said it had proper certification from the city from an earlier contract.

“It’s one chaotic moment after the next,” Baraka said.

In a statement Friday, American Friends Service Committee said people inside the facility reported getting small portions of food, with breakfast at 6 a.m., dinner at 10 p.m. and no lunch.

In a statement on Friday, GEO Group said it was dedicated to “providing high-quality services to those in our care.”

Miguel Orea, program manager for First Friends of New Jersey and New York, a non-governmental organization that provides assistance to detained immigrants, was at Delaney Hall on Friday and saw families trying to visit detainees being turned away.

“Delaney Hall is in a strict lockdown,” Orea said. “They’ve suspended all visitation until at least next week.”

He said that families who have been in contact with detainees told him that the cafeteria is being used to hold people who will be transferred elsewhere, affecting the meal service. Orea said the complaints began after the facility was opened in May.

“The families have told us that the conditions were extremely poor, that the food service was poor,” Orea said. He noted that in some cases detainees would receive breakfast at 8 a.m. and dinner not until 10 p.m., with no other meal in between. In some cases, he said, they received only two slices of bread.

Newark was one of four New Jersey cities sued by the Trump administration this year over so-called sanctuary policies.

There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limited local cooperation with ICE, which enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.

The policies are aimed at prohibiting cooperation on civil enforcement matters, not at blocking cooperation on criminal matters. They specifically carve out exceptions for when ICE supplies police with a judicial criminal warrant.

Asked whether Newark was helping with the four escapees, Baraka said Friday it was a federal investigation.

A nationwide crackdown

ICE housed more than 53,000 people nationwide at the end of May, its latest public figures, which is well above its budgeted capacity of about 41,000 and approaching all-time highs.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said late last month that ICE should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from Jan. 20 to May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.

Delaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the administration and those who run the facility.

Baraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped and Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges and said she was doing her job as a lawmaker conducting oversight.

Catalini writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Gisela Salomon and Hallie Golden contributed to this report.