Four illegal immigrants have escaped from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday after unrest broke out in the building.
A Homeland Security official told Fox News that “Additional law enforcement partners have been brought in to find these escapees and a BOLO has been disseminated.”
The unrest stemmed from frustration over delayed meals and inhumane conditions. Dozens of detainees pushed through a wall in the facility. Several individuals attempted to escape by hanging bedsheets out of windows.
🚨 #BREAKING: NINE illegals detained by ICE have just ESCAPED the Newark ICE facility after a reported riot
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 13, 2025
Anti-ICE rioters are now BLOCKING federal agents from chasing the escapees
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM should be arrested NOW! pic.twitter.com/Lybld7OaCm
Video footage circulating on social media shows groups of protesters blocking an ICE SUV from exiting one of the gates. Newark Mayor Ros. J. Baraka stated that his office was “concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees.”
NEW>> Pro-Illegal Alien Radicals Block Vehicles and Cause Mayhem at Newark ICE Facility (WATCH)https://t.co/5212LdfSQt pic.twitter.com/BWFZmnFWsM
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 13, 2025
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The New York Times reported that law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded to the scene. Witnesses reported smelling pepper spray. Detainees said, “people were hungry and got very angry and started to react and started to rebel.”
The detainee said that people were trying to break windows and that, at one point, guards seemed to have abandoned their posts.
Delaney Hall is run by one of the country’s largest private prison companies, the GEO Group, which has a contract with the Trump administration to hold as many as 1,000 migrants at a time. Last month, a clash outside the facility led the Justice Department to charge Representative LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, with assault. Ms. McIver, who has maintained her innocence, is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday and has said that she will enter a not-guilty plea.
A volunteer working at an immigrant hotline reported hearing screams and chaos while speaking with a detainee on the phone. Law enforcement blocked visitors from accessing the facility.
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