For five days, the two sides have been in a volatile standoff outside Delaney Hall, a federal detention center that has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
By Ana Ley and Mark Bonamo, The New York Times
Atop an empty patch of pavement in Newark, N.J., dozens of demonstrators arrived at dawn Tuesday, hoisting cardboard protest signs. In front of them, an armored vehicle rolled up to a cordon of federal agents who carried rifles and metal batons, their bodies concealed beneath the rising sun in helmets, flak vests, and balaclavas.
For several days, the two sides have been in a volatile standoff outside Delaney Hall, a federal detention center that has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. A stream of activists has cycled in and out of a parking lot to support what they described as a hunger strike by detainees. For months, the incarcerated migrants have complained to family members and elected officials about rotten food and inadequate medical care. Democratic elected officials have expressed outrage over the migrants’ living conditions.
On Tuesday, emotions were inflamed. Some activists taunted the agents, and one woman sobbed inside a tent. As the day grew hotter, the stench from the nearby Passaic River, fetid from raw sewage, permeated the air.
