4 detainees remain unaccounted for following unrest at New Jersey ICE facility: Officials

(NEWARK, N.J.) — Four detainees who escaped from an immigration detention center in New Jersey remain unaccounted for on Friday, according to law enforcement officials, following what the city’s mayor referred to as an “uprising” at the facility.

The detainees were being held at Delaney Hall in Newark, a privately owned facility that has been contracted out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

They broke through a wall — described as “drywall with a mesh interior” — that led to an exterior wall and into a parking lot, according to U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who said he was briefed by facility administrators and ICE leadership on the situation Friday along with Rep. Rob Menendez, D-N.J.

It is unclear where the detainees are and if other walls in the facility are vulnerable, Kim said during a press briefing on Friday, adding, “That just shows the incompetence and the recklessness of all this.”

Kim said the facility is going through a security review and the breach is under investigation. There will be “major detainee movements out of this facility,” he said.

“We are now going to try to get full confirmation from ICE headquarters about what is the future of this facility and whether or not they’re going to shut it down,” Kim said.

The escape followed “disturbances” and unrest over the past 24 hours related to food access at the facility, Kim said.

“Because they were doing movements of detainees around, using the cafeteria to be able to do that, that interrupted dramatically the ability for detainees to get access to food, that caused a number of the unrest that was happening,” Kim said.

This is on top of issues regarding the portions of food that detainees have been getting at the facility, as well as concerns about detainees being denied visitation, Kim said.

“We don’t want this here in New Jersey,” Kim said. “We want to make sure people are treated with dignity.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also addressed issues about the detainees’ treatment in the facility.

“We are concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees,” Baraka said in a statement late Thursday.

Baraka said he is demanding “immediate answers” to the situation inside the facility from the owner, GEO Group, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., who represents Newark in Congress, said she is monitoring the situation following reports of “unrest” at the facility.

“I have serious concerns about the reports of abusive circumstances at the facility,” she said in a statement on Thursday. “Even now, as we are hearing reports from news organizations and advocates on the ground about a lack of food and basic rights for those inside, the administration appears to be stonewalling efforts to learn the truth. My office has reached out to ICE for answers. ICE has not yet provided them.”

When contacted for comment, ICE referred ABC News to DHS, which said it is “aware” of the four detainees escaping.

“Additional law enforcement partners have been brought in to find these escapees and a BOLO [be-on-the-lookout notice] has been disseminated,” a senior DHS official said in a statement.

The GEO Group referred ABC News to law enforcement.

McIver and Baraka were both involved in an incident at Delaney Hall last month while McIver and other congressmembers were on site to conduct oversight. Federal prosecutors allege McIver assaulted law enforcement officers outside the facility while attempting to thwart the arrest of Baraka after a law enforcement official asked him to leave.

A federal grand jury indicted McIver for “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers,” New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said this week.

McIver called the prosecution “a brazen attempt at political intimidation” and said she plans to plead not guilty.

Baraka was arrested at the facility and charged with trespassing, though Habba later dropped the charge.

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