Gothamist77%
NJ AG: Protesters used fireworks, tear gas as State Police took over Delaney Hall crowds 33%
By Louis C. Hochman78%
5/30/2026, 5:56:49 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Unattributed Quote, Confirmation Bias, and Negativity Bias, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 25.7% saturation with 212 hits. Analysis detected 2,187 faulty-reasoning hits from 824 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 41.2% and a BS Rank of 33% (14,867 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 67.90% of the article peer group.
New Jersey’s attorney general says state police have “temporarily cleared” the area in front of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark after protesters deployed fireworks and threw gas canisters at law enforcement late Friday night — just hours after the state’s governor announced state police would establish a “peaceful protest zone.”
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement posted to social media that state police were seeking to ensure safe passage of vehicles transporting people in and out of Delaney Hall, and that while post people outside cooperated, “a limited number did not comply with repeated requests to clear a safe passage for the vehicles and took dangerous action.”
Friday afternoon, Davenport had said state police would take over public safety operations from ICE outside Delaney Hall, where for more than a week protesters have demonstrated, frequently clashed with ICE agents and sought to block vehicles that might be used to transfer detainees amid a hunger and labor strike.
Immigrant advocate groups and detainees in multiple open letters have said they’re striking over poor conditions including food with worms in it, squalid facilities, and limited access to healthcare and legal assistance.
The Department of Homeland Security and private contractor Geo Group, which runs the facility, have repeatedly denied those claims.
Sherrill, on Friday, had said the state police takeover of the site was meant to deescalate tensions amid the protests, where more than a dozen people have been arrested and ICE agents have repeatedly pushed protesters back, struck protesters with batons and deployed tear gas.
The Department of Justice said late Friday it had arrested a man it accused of kicking one federal officer and biting two others.
”We all need to do everything we can to cool things down now,” Sherrill said at a press conference Friday to announce the plan.
“I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.”
Photos captured by Getty Images and posted to social media late Friday show lines of state police with riot shields moving protesters on Doremus Avenue, outside the immigration facility.
“They have riot shields, they have flashbangs, they are using mounted police,” Kathy O’Leary, the New Jersey coordinator for the Catholic advocacy group Pax Christi, said in a voicemail to Gothamist.
“This is completely contrary to everything every conversation that I’ve had with the AG’s office, and I’ve had multiple conversations with them.”
Some Getty Images photos show the windshield of an ICE vehicle smashed, with a paving stone atop it.
Others show conservative influencer Cam Higby spraying pepper spray at protestors amid a confrontation outside the center.
On X, he posted videos of protesters moving barricades into the street and using concrete to block vehicles, and claimed he’d “cold cocked” a person who took his phone before other protesters grabbed it and smashed his equipment.
The Department of Homeland Security had repeatedly criticized state and local police for remaining largely uninvolved with managing the crowds outside of Delaney Hall throughout the week.
Mayor Ras Baraka — who was arrested at Delaney Hall last year on later-dropped charges of tresspassing, after joining members of Congress inside for an oversight visit — told Gothamist this week the federal government had made “calls were for us to come and move people.
“That's their jurisdiction.
They created that so they have to move people,” he said this week.
We're not gonna engage and get our police officers hurt.”
But by Thursday night, some state police vehicles had begun directing traffic nearby.
Officials said that was after an incident Wednesday in which one was struck by a vehicle.
In a statement Saturday morning, Sherrill said New Jersey State Police had become involved because “an increased ICE surge in the area outside of Delaney Hall is a threat to public safety.
We know that lives would be at risk were that to happen.
And I will not accept that risk.
“
"That is why last night, the New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response Team acted to secure the area outside of Delaney Hall.
This was absolutely necessary to protect public safety, and avoid escalation from ICE,” she said.
“As Americans, we have a right to protest — and we will continue to ensure New Jersey residents can peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights.”
She urged anyone continuing to protest to do so peacefully.
“We need to focus on advocating for better conditions for the detainees, for their families, and ultimately, for the closure of Delaney Hall,” she said.
It wasn’t immediately clear from the attorney general’s statement how long state police expected to keep the area in front of Delaney Hall clear of protesters, where flyers distributed widely online this week invited a MAGA movement demonstration to take place Saturday morning.
— Includes reporting by Michael Warren.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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100%flagged-word coverageJennifer Davenport
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