[Video below.] New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Monday that federal officials blocked her from entering the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark as demonstrations intensified outside the building and detainees inside reportedly launched a hunger strike over conditions.

Sherrill said the refusal to allow access to the facility only deepened concerns about what may be taking place behind closed doors.

“I have long opposed private detention facilities and will continue to advocate for the closure of Delaney Hall and against any expansion of mass detention facilities in New Jersey, like the proposed facility in Roxbury,” Sherrill said in a statement obtained by NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. “I came today to hear from families and advocates, and what I heard from them was heartbreaking.”

The Department of Homeland Security sharply criticized the visit, accusing the governor of turning the situation into a political spectacle.

A DHS spokesperson told The Hill that Sherrill’s appearance at the detention center was “nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside in the facility.”

Several Democratic officials from New Jersey accompanied Sherrill, including Andy Kim, Rob Menendez Jr., Nellie Pou, and LaMonica McIver. The lawmakers met with demonstrators gathered outside Delaney Hall after confrontations broke out Sunday, during which protesters claimed ICE officers used pepper spray against them, according to WABC.

Federal officials said Kim was eventually permitted to enter the facility after contacting Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin directly. DHS did not clarify whether Sherrill or the other lawmakers were ever granted entry.

Mullin pushed back against allegations surrounding conditions at the center, rejecting claims that detainees had begun a hunger strike and insisting that the facility was not operating under “subprime conditions.” He also accused Democratic officials in New Jersey of “smearing ICE law enforcement.”

Demonstrations outside Delaney Hall began Friday after activist Gabriela Soto arrived at the site during the launch of what organizers described as a hunger and labor strike by detainees, according to The City, a New York-based outlet. Protest organizers said roughly 300 detainees participated, demanding the release of elderly and younger detainees as well as those suffering from medical problems.

Soto said her husband, who has reportedly been detained since February, was confined to a cell for eight hours while being questioned by officers.

“The people inside Delaney Hall are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and members of our community,” she said. “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.”

DHS officials described the protests as disruptive and aggressive. According to a spokesperson, approximately 125 protesters, “many carrying anti-ICE signs and Antifa flags… formed a human chain around entrances to the facility and set up barricades, blocking all entries and exits.”

The lawmakers accompanying Sherrill also criticized the conditions inside the detention center after attempting an unannounced oversight inspection Sunday night. Menendez said he too was prevented from entering.

“I was told that I would be able to go inside at 8 a.m., but ICE continues to deny entry,” he wrote on social platform X Monday morning.

Pou, Kim, and McIver each posted photographs from the protest scene on X and publicly demanded that Delaney Hall be shut down.

Cory Booker also announced Sunday that he planned to visit the facility.

“Immigrants at Delaney Hall are on a hunger strike because they are fighting for their human rights,” he wrote on X. “The conditions there are deplorable… Enough is enough — not in New Jersey, not anywhere.”

Federal officials defended the detention center’s operations and insisted detainees are receiving proper care. A DHS spokesperson said inmates are given three meals daily along with water, bedding, clothing, and hygiene supplies, adding that ICE “has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

{Matzav.com}