When immigrant detainees launched a hunger strike in New Jersey’s Delaney Hall on May 22 in defiance of what several Members of Congress who visited the facility themselves called “inhumane conditions,” protesters flooded the area ever since, staring down military-grade mace and pepper guns.
While men made up the ranks of demonstrators who looked to stand in defiance of President Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown, it was often women who led the charge.
The fear of stinging pepper spray, the bone-crushing pain of batons, and the throat-clogging choking of smoke bombs did not stop these women from roaring on the frontlines against armed ICE agents and state police over the last week.
During the height of the protest, the violence resembled that of a battlefield, with individuals left incapacitated on the side of the road outside of Delaney Hall after being brutally beaten and doused with chemical irritants, with one person even having their leg crushed after being shoved into the path of an oncoming truck.
Many of the women leading the protests were among the most resilient to the authorities’ efforts, interlocking arms and, at times, being literally beaten backward to be moved.
amNewYork spoke to several of these women and asked why they were willing to risk their health and arrest for the detainees inside Delaney Hall.
Gabi the Artist could often be found outside of Delaney Hall with a guitar in hand, singing in the face of ICE agents. She said she is hoping to use music to help inspire demonstrators and spread awareness of the inhumane conditions at Delaney Hall.
“I’m here because there are people being illegally detained there. There’s children, pregnant women, mothers, fathers; we all deserve due process in this country. It’s a constitutional right, whether you are documented or undocumented,” Gabi said. “What’s happening here is very scary, like how the police are using force against the civilians. These are very peaceful organizations that I’ve been working with, and it is scary, but what’s more scary is normalizing a concentration camp. I hope that my music can bring awareness, and I hope that it can bring unity.”
Asma Elhuni has been a lead demonstrator over the past week; she was released from custody on Monday night after being arrested the previous evening for breaking the curfew imposed by Newark, NJ, Mayor Ras Baraka. Despite seeing the brutality on the outside and being held for hours in the county jail, she said she remains steadfast.
“We had to sleep on the floor, many of us. There was no space. There were only two small benches, 29 people sleeping on the floor. They didn’t feed us until 11 hours in,” Elhuni said, explaining that it has only strengthened her resolve. “The jail conditions were absolutely horrendous. Again, that’s just a glimpse of what they are facing over there.”
Another woman wearing a blue mask and a sweatshirt reading “F**k ICE” gave her name as Miles and told amNewYork that she made the trek to Delaney Hall for immigrants like her mother. She said that despite the riot police using flashbangs and smoke bombs to disperse protesters, it is the ICE agents’ lack of accountability that truly scares her.
“The state police are in front of us. I can see badge numbers, I can see faces. There’s some guys with sunglasses on, and I won’t know who they are but at least they have identification, I can see the tags, I can see the specific colors of the uniform. ICE, they have no badge numbers; they cover their faces up completely. There is no difference between them and a literal militia; they are a militia, they are their own physical army,” Miles said. “They’re given military-grade weapons to stop the illegal dude who came in? Okay, he shouldn’t have come in legally. Does he deserve to have his skull cracked on the sidewalk because he came in here illegally?”
Asma Elhuni puts her body between ICE agents and protesters. Photo by Dean Moses
Another female protester, who declined to give her name, said she was willing to risk her own life and limb to defend those inside Delaney Hall who were taken off the streets without due process.
“They’ve been detained without due process. They’ve been removed from their families without getting any legal advice. No one knows where they are. Their voice has been stripped. Their constitutional rights are supposed to apply to everyone here, not just full citizens, and that hasn’t been happening. And so I’m here to speak up for the things that are wrong,” she said.
