Newark Mayor Imposes Overnight Curfew Around Delaney Hall ICE Detention Center

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposed an emergency overnight curfew around the Delaney Hall immigration detention center on Sunday, ordering people to stay away from the privately run facility as months of escalating protests over the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign threatened to spill into open confrontation.

The curfew restricts movement within half a mile of the detention center between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. and closes Doremus Avenue to pedestrians and vehicles without verified need to be there. "Due to the escalating situation at Delaney Hall and the increasing need for police intervention, immediate action is required to protect public safety," Baraka said in announcing the order, which came after multiple people were arrested in the area carrying weapons.

Delaney Hall has been a flashpoint since it reopened last year under a 15-year contract between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the private prison operator GEO Group. Detainees inside have mounted a hunger strike, and advocates have lodged complaints about expired food, inadequate medical care and alleged abuse. Outside, daily demonstrations through May featured human chains and barricades, and police at times responded with batons and pepper spray, arresting six protesters during one night of clashes.

The standoff has carried steep political costs. Baraka himself was arrested earlier on trespassing charges that were later dropped, and U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver was charged with assault stemming from an incident at the facility — charges she denies, calling the prosecution politically motivated. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, who was denied access to the site, has called for Delaney Hall to be shut down entirely, framing it as a symbol of federal overreach into a Democratic-led state.

The confrontation in Newark has become one of the most visible fronts in a national fight over immigration enforcement, pitting an aggressive federal deportation drive against local officials determined to resist it. The administration has leaned heavily on private contractors like GEO Group to rapidly expand detention capacity, and facilities like Delaney Hall have drawn intense scrutiny over conditions and oversight.

The friction reflects a broader clash playing out in cities across the country. Human rights data cited by advocates indicate that roughly 71% of people held in ICE detention have no criminal convictions, a figure opponents of the crackdown have seized on to argue that the system is sweeping up people who pose no public-safety threat. With detainees refusing food, lawmakers facing charges and a mayor now invoking emergency powers, the situation in Newark shows little sign of cooling.