NEWARK, N.J. – What began as another anti-ICE demonstration outside Newark’s Delaney Hall detention facility turned into a chaotic confrontation on Memorial Day weekend, complete with blocked vehicles, pepper spray, and yet another example of Leftist politicians blurring the line between oversight and borderline seditious activism.
U.S. Senator Andy Kim was reportedly caught up in the disorder Sunday after demonstrators attempted to interfere with ICE operations outside the facility. According to multiple reports, protesters moved into access roads and tried to stop federal vehicles from leaving the detention center following rumors that ICE planned to transfer a detainee involved in a hunger strike. Governor Mikie Sherrill and other members of the New Jersey congressional delegation including LaMonica McIver, who is already under indictment for allegedly assaulting a federal law enforcement at Delaney Hall last year.
Federal agents eventually deployed pepper spray as tensions escalated.
Kim, who was present alongside immigration activists and other Democratic officials, reportedly suffered a minor hand injury during the melee. Activists sympathetic to the protest movement quickly accused ICE of excessive force, while the Department of Homeland Security defended agents on the scene, arguing that protesters had created unsafe conditions and obstructed federal operations.
Sen. Andy Kim gets his eyes washed out by “medics” after getting between clashing federal agents and far left agitators blocking the entrance to Delaney Hall immigration detention center in NJ pic.twitter.com/kgwySgWs6F
— Elaad Eliahu (@elaadeliahu) May 25, 2026
“This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks,” opined Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions.”
The Delaney Hall controversy has become a rallying point for New Jersey Leftists determined to portray immigration detention itself as illegitimate. Protesters claim detainees launched a hunger strike over conditions inside the facility, while activists and allied politicians continue demanding the center’s closure altogether.
This latest incident also underscores the increasingly political role some elected officials are playing in anti-enforcement demonstrations. There’s a difference between conducting oversight and effectively joining activists in the middle of an escalating protest scene. When members of Congress place themselves amid confrontational demonstrations, they shouldn’t be surprised when situations become volatile.
For New Jersey Republicans and many law-and-order voters, the images outside Delaney Hall reinforced a broader concern about Democratic immigration politics: too many elected officials appear more interested in siding with activists than supporting the federal agents responsible for enforcing the law.
“Maybe he will donate his eyeglasses to the Smithsonian next,” quipped Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, R-Sussex, a reference to Andy Kim’s infamous donation of a blue suit to the Smithsonian after picking up trash wearing it in the immediate aftermath of January 6th.
At a moment when immigration enforcement remains one of the nation’s most divisive political issues, the Delaney Hall confrontation served as a reminder that anti-ICE activism often escalates beyond peaceful protest — and that federal officers are still expected to keep order when it does.
🚨 NOW: Sen. Andy Kim (D) gets caught in PEPPER SPRAY after putting himself in the middle of a leftist anti-ICE riot in New Jersey
His eyes are now being washed out 🤣
Kim tried "negotiating" with ICE and the rioters, but then ICE FORCED their way through the left anyway 🔥… https://t.co/tHL0l7HKeC pic.twitter.com/DG1Twa0Cvs
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 25, 2026
