Women at Newark ICE Facility Join Strike After Guard Accused of Sexual Assault
Detained women at Delaney Hall are demanding the removal of a guard accused of sexual assault, while advocates say hunger strikers were transferred in retaliation.
Women detained at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark operated by GEO Group, have joined a hunger and labor strike after accusations that a female guard sexually assaulted at least 10 immigrant women.
The strike at Delaney Hall began in May, led by detained immigrants protesting conditions inside the private ICE facility. According to advocates and reporting by Democracy Now, detained women joined the strike in its third week and demanded the removal of the guard accused of sexual assault.
The allegation cuts straight through the usual language of “detention operations.” These are immigrant women held in ICE custody, inside a GEO Group facility, saying a guard accused of sexual assault should not remain in a position of power over detained women.
Advocates also say ICE and facility officials have transferred hunger strikers to other detention centers in retaliation. Those claims should be treated as retaliation allegations, but the pattern is familiar: detained people report abuse, organize inside custody, and then face removal from the place where the abuse was exposed.
Delaney Hall has already been under scrutiny. New Jersey officials sued GEO Group seeking broader health inspection access to the Newark facility, citing concerns over conditions and state oversight. The facility is part of the expanding private detention infrastructure ICE uses to hold immigrants while shielding much of what happens inside from public view.
A guard accused of sexually assaulting detained immigrant women is not a “facility issue.” It is a custody abuse allegation inside a private ICE jail. And when women inside that jail go on strike because they say the accused guard remains employed, the public record should name the institution, the contractor, the harm, and the women forced to fight from inside detention.
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