Anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement “rioters” allegedly attacked federal immigration officers with a chemical during a raucous protest that broke out Tuesday outside a Newark immigration detention center for the fifth day in a row.
The riotous melee exploded overnight outside Delaney Hall when violent agitators sprayed federal officers with an unknown chemical as authorities tried to quell the chaos outside the facility, according to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen.
Shocking footage was shown Masked, keffiyeh-wearing mobs clashed with dozens of ICE agents, blocked vehicles and caused chaos outside the detention center.
Mullen said two “rioters” were arrested on charges of assaulting, resisting and obstructing federal officers.
“Attacking law enforcement and obstructing its implementation is a crime and a felony.” He got angry at X. “Anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
President Trump described the protesters as “all paid protesters” during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
“These are not protesters. These people are fake,” he said when asked about the ongoing protests outside the facility.
The crowds had thinned by Wednesday morning, with roughly 30 armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents guarding the front gate.
Delaney Hall has been a hotbed of unrest since Friday, when detainees reportedly began a hunger and labor strike to protest conditions inside the 1,000-bed facility.
Anti-customs protests have escalated into increasing violence in recent days, with tensions rising after Gov. Mickey Sherrill joined protesters at the facility on Monday in what the Department of Homeland Security called a “political stunt.”
The migrants inside claim they were given contaminated food, were crammed into rooms without air conditioning, and had their immigration cases dismissed by federal judges. The New Jersey Monitor reported.
However, the Department of Homeland Security insists that conditions inside its centers are actually maintained to “higher detention standards than most US prisons holding American citizens” and has denied allegations of hunger strikes.
Mullen said Wednesday that only a “handful” of detainees miss their meals because they order “ethnic” food.
“Well, they can go home and get whatever food they want.” He said during the Cabinet session on Wednesday. “The reality is we’re giving them the calories they want. This isn’t a Holiday Inn.”
Mullen also criticized Sherrill and other left-wing politicians in the Garden State for joining the raucous Memorial Day protests.
“It shows the priorities of far-left Democrats when they decide to go out and protest a detention center that houses rapists, child predators, murderers, and drug dealers — and they choose Memorial Day?”