The Trump administration, including the president, has denied allegations that the detention center is inhumane and/or unsanitary.
minute read
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters on Wednesday that a group of illegal migrants hunger striking at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in New Jersey are allegedly refusing to eat because they demand their ethnic food be served to them. As a result, Sec. Mullin stated that the migrant detainees can “go back to their countries” and eat whatever they like, asserting that the Delaney Hall detention center is not a “Holiday Inn.”
Mullin made the comments during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “There’s only a handful of individuals who refuse to eat because they want their ethnic food,” said Sec. Mullin. “They can go back to their countries and get whatever food they want. The fact is: we’re giving them the calories they want. This isn’t Holiday Inn.”
This comes as anti-ICE demonstrators have been rioting outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, NJ, for several days, raising awareness about the purported hunger strike and demanding that all detained migrants be released from the facility, among other things. The Trump administration, including the president, has denied allegations that the detention center is inhumane and/or unsanitary.
Since Saturday, rioters have formed a blockade equipped with checkpoints in an attempt to prevent federal vehicles from entering and/or exiting Delaney Hall with apprehended migrants. DHS said that rioters have been arrested for assaulting, resisting, and impeding federal officers.
Speaking of ICE detention facilities across the nation, President Trump said during the Cabinet meeting: “We run the finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type.” He added that illegal migrants detained at Delaney Hall include the worst-of-the-worst offenders, such as murderers, child rapists, and drug dealers.
Tom Homan, Trump’s Border Czar, said on Tuesday that hunger strikes “are not going to work,” explaining that apprehended migrants have a history of using this as a tactic. “We’re not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike,” Homan told Fox News. “If it gets bad enough and they put themselves in extreme medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them. We’ll get a court order and force-feed them.”
Several Democratic US and state lawmakers have visited Delaney Hall in recent days, demanding that the detention facility be shut down. Protests remain ongoing.