Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deployed pepper spray that struck Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) on Monday as roughly 125 protesters gathered outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, N.J., a confrontation the Department of Homeland Security called the result of a "political stunt" by Democratic officials who showed up on Memorial Day to challenge conditions at the facility.
Kim said he had difficulty breathing after the incident. Mutual aid volunteers poured water in his eyes, and he was later photographed holding an ice pack. The freshman senator described "chaos inside and outside" the facility, where approximately 300 detained migrants were reportedly conducting a hunger and work strike over what Kim called a "lack of due process, the disgusting food and poor treatment."
DHS flatly denied those claims. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin posted on X that "there was no hunger strike at the facility." And DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis went further, telling reporters that "there is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions or abuse at the facility." The department said detainees receive three meals daily along with medical, dental, and mental health services.
The competing accounts, Democratic lawmakers alleging inhumane treatment, DHS insisting the visit was theater, frame a dispute in which neither side has offered independent documentation to settle the matter.
Protesters first gathered at the Newark facility on Friday, when organizer Gabriela Soto arrived at the start of what she described as a hunger and work strike by detainees. Soto's husband has been held at Delaney Hall since February. By Monday, the crowd had swelled, and Democratic elected officials joined the demonstration, including New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Nellie Pou.
Sherrill and other lawmakers were initially denied access to the facility. Kim gained entry only after placing a direct call to Secretary Mullin, The Hill reported, citing a DHS spokesperson. The department did not confirm whether Sherrill or the other members of Congress were ever allowed inside.
Kim posted on X that ICE responded to the protest by sending "an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents." He said officers "fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd." He also described ICE officers tackling and restraining demonstrators and using batons to disperse the crowd.
DHS offered a markedly different version. Breitbart reported that DHS stated no individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles. The department said protesters had blocked the facility entrance, obstructing law enforcement from exiting, and that "our law enforcement followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property."
No arrests from Monday's confrontation were reported. The number of ICE personnel deployed was not disclosed.
Delaney Hall is no stranger to confrontation between protesters and federal agents. Fox News reported that Rep. LaMonica McIver, one of the same lawmakers present on Monday, was arrested and charged federally in 2025 for allegedly assaulting an officer at the very same facility. McIver pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appeal before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on June 23. Fox also noted that physical clashes had previously occurred at the site, including a protester shoving a megaphone in an agent's face.
That history matters. When the same lawmakers return to the same facility, and the same pattern of confrontation unfolds, the administration's "political stunt" characterization gains weight. These are not spontaneous encounters. They are organized events at a location that has already produced federal charges against a sitting member of Congress.
The broader pattern of violence at ICE-related protests around the country adds further context. Demonstrations that begin as peaceful vigils have repeatedly escalated into physical confrontations, leaving law enforcement in the position of choosing between standing down and using crowd-control measures that become the next day's headlines.
Kim framed the incident as a failure of the administration. He posted on X:
"Detainees protesting the lack of due process, the disgusting food and poor treatment while their families and advocates stood outside calling for help. Instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions, ICE sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire."
He later added:
"What I witnessed and experienced today was shameful. Delaney Hall is a failure; it's this administration's failure. The only way to make this right for our communities is to shut it down and make sure the failures we've seen never happen again."
Notice the demand: shut the facility down entirely. Not reform it. Not improve oversight. Close it. That tells you where this is heading. The protest, the pepper spray, the social media posts, they build toward a political objective, not an inspection finding.
Mullin's response was blunt. He called the Democrats' visit a "political stunt" and denied the hunger strike existed at all. DHS's Bis said the facility meets its care obligations. Neither side produced inspection records, medical logs, or other documentation that would resolve the factual dispute.
Gov. Sherrill, whose request to access the facility was denied, told reporters: "No matter what your immigration status is, you shouldn't be treated with anything less than dignity in this country." She also said the denial of access raised "even more questions about what they are trying to hide from public view."
That framing, "what are they hiding?", is effective politics. But it is not evidence. The facility denied entry to the governor while granting it to the senator who called the secretary directly. That is irregular, but it is not proof of abuse inside the walls.
Democrats chose Memorial Day, a day honoring fallen American servicemembers, to stage a protest at an immigration detention center. That choice of timing is worth noting. So is the cast of characters: a senator, a governor, and multiple House members, all from the same state, all from the same party, all arriving with cameras rolling.
This is the same Memorial Day protest at Delaney Hall that DHS labeled a stunt from the start. The department's position is that lawmakers showed up not to conduct genuine oversight but to manufacture a confrontation that would play well on social media and cable news.
Kim's own social media posts, posted rapidly, with vivid language and clear political conclusions, do not contradict that reading. A senator who genuinely wanted to investigate conditions would typically request a formal inspection, bring staff, and compile findings before issuing public statements. Kim instead joined a crowd of protesters, got caught in a pepper spray deployment, and posted about it within hours.
None of that means conditions at Delaney Hall are acceptable. It does mean that the people making the loudest claims have not produced the kind of evidence, inspection reports, medical records, independent assessments, that would compel action on the merits rather than on the optics.
Organizer Gabriela Soto, whose husband has been detained at the facility since February, offered the most sympathetic case for the demonstrators:
"The people inside Delaney Hall are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and members of our community. In New Jersey, we believe in the rule of law and that everyone deserves to be treated with basic dignity. We have a duty to safeguard the rights, health, and well-being of everyone within our borders."
Soto's appeal to "the rule of law" is notable. The rule of law is also what requires immigration enforcement in the first place. It is what authorizes detention of individuals awaiting proceedings. And it is what obligates protesters not to block facility entrances, which DHS says they did.
Several key facts remain unresolved. No independent party has verified whether a hunger strike is actually underway. DHS denies it; detainees and their advocates insist it is real. Neither side has shown documentation.
The severity of Kim's exposure to pepper spray is unclear. He reported difficulty breathing and received improvised first aid, but no medical treatment or hospital visit was reported. Whether any protesters were injured, arrested, or charged on Monday is also not established in available reporting.
ICE has not publicly explained its specific justification for deploying pepper spray, pepper balls, batons, and an armored vehicle. DHS's general statement about "minimum force" does not address why that level of response was deemed necessary at a protest attended by a sitting U.S. senator and a sitting governor. That gap invites scrutiny from both sides, those who think ICE overreacted and those who think the protest was designed to provoke exactly this response.
The broader question of Democratic strategy at ICE facilities is worth watching. Lawmakers who encourage confrontational protest tactics at enforcement sites know that any use of force by federal agents becomes a political asset. The incentive structure rewards escalation, not resolution.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats face internal divisions on multiple fronts. High-profile protest events at ICE facilities offer a way to unify the caucus around a shared cause, immigration enforcement opposition, at a moment when other issues are splitting the party.
Strip away the pepper spray footage and the social media posts, and the core dispute is straightforward. The administration is detaining illegal immigrants at Delaney Hall pending proceedings. Democrats want the facility shut down. DHS says conditions are adequate. Democrats say they are not. Neither side has produced the records that would settle the argument.
What we do know is that protesters blocked a federal facility entrance, ICE deployed crowd-control measures, and a senator who joined the protest got caught in the spray. We also know that one of the lawmakers present on Monday already faces federal charges from a previous incident at the same location.
If conditions at Delaney Hall are genuinely inhumane, the answer is documentation, formal inspection, and legal action, not a Memorial Day rally that ends in pepper spray and a flurry of social media posts. And if the protest was designed to provoke a response that could be filmed and shared, then DHS is right to call it what it is.
Accountability runs in both directions. Federal agents should use force proportionally and explain their decisions. But elected officials who show up at enforcement facilities with cameras, block entrances, and then demand the facility be shut down are not conducting oversight. They are conducting a campaign.
