Four migrants escaped from a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday evening following a disturbance involving dozens of detainees upset over late and poor-quality meals.
The incident occurred at Delaney Hall after approximately 50 detainees reportedly worked together to push down a dormitory wall. Immigration attorney Mustafa Cetin, who represents a detainee within the facility, told NJ.com that tensions flared when food was delivered late and was low-quality.
“It’s about the food, and some of the detainees were getting aggressive and it turned violent,” Cetin told the outlet. “Based on what he told me it was an outer wall, not very strong, and they were able to push it down.”
Cetin added that his client said detainees hung bedsheets during the escape attempt and that he smelled gas during the incident.
Around 6 pm, dozens of law enforcement officers were present at the facility. Whitney Strub, a professor at Rutgers University-Newark, shared photos of the scene and said those outside were “all coughing at the same time,” after exposure to “some kind of gas.”
Later that night, around 9 pm, a group of protesters reportedly blocked an SUV from exiting the facility, forcing it to return inside.
The escapees were seen fleeing near Turnpike 78 and Delancey Street. Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka issued a statement in which he said 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.”
A senior official from the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that additional law enforcement resources had been deployed and a BOLO (Be On the Lookout) alert had been issued to locate the escapees.
