Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said Tuesday that he disagreed with the tactics New Jersey State Police used after they were ordered by Gov. Mikie Sherrill to secure the scene outside Delaney Hall, describing the agency as "a sword."
Clashes erupted outside the detention center in Newark on Friday after protesters defied an order from the State Police to relocate to a nearby "First Amendment zone." The area has seen frequent demonstrations in recent days after illegal immigrant detainees penned an open letter alleging physical and psychological torture, claiming they were being denied medical care and adequate food.
On Saturday, Sherrill said the New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response team was sent to the area in a move "absolutely necessary to protect public safety, and avoid escalation from ICE."
"I mean, clearly I agree that she was supposed to take action, 100 percent. She's the governor. She's the leader of this state. Our agencies are going to follow her, her attorney general, her staff. We're going to defer to her, because she is the leader of this state. And she needed to make strong and aggressive decisions," Baraka, a fellow Democrat, said Tuesday.
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"She made a decision to involve the state police, which is probably the tools that she has at her disposal. So I don't disagree with any of that up to that point. What I disagree with is the tactics that were employed by the state police when they got here," he continued.
"Look, the state police is a sword. If you're going to use them, you have to expect people to get cut. And those are the thinking that has to go into this. And I just think that we, going forward, have to have larger discussions about tactics on the ground. The local authorities, our public safety director has to be involved in every decision going forward in our city. Right? The elected officials have to be involved, our health department," Baraka also said. "And to their credit, there have been cross conversations with individuals, but not collective ones. And we finally had a collective conversation."
Baraka also mentioned Tuesday that the city of Newark has been in active litigation against GEO Group, the operators of Delaney Hall, for the past year. GEO Group has a national contract with ICE.
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"And from the beginning, we have advocated for the immediate closure of this building, Delaney Hall, due to the GEO Group's failure to comply with code ordinances, which we believe pose a serious health and safety risk," he said.
"The reports of detainees suffering miscarriages, receiving inadequate medical care, psychological abuse, is troubling, which forces us now to expand, and our business administrator will talk about that, our lawsuit against Delaney Hall, further than just code enforcement violations," Baraka continued.
Newark Business Administrator Eric Pennington said Tuesday that he emailed the GEO Group Monday night "indicating that we want to get access" to Delaney Hall "to make sure that the health and safety of the individuals inside is appropriate."
"We have not received a response yet but we expect to get that today. If they don't allow us in, we, along with partners who are out here to protect the individuals inside, they will join our lawsuit ... along with the state health department ... to have this facility shut down until it can be inspected and ensured that it is safe for the individuals who are in there," Pennington said. "So we are awaiting GEO Group's response now and we expect to go to the court within the next day or two, to continue the existing lawsuit."
A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital last week that all detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap and toiletries.
The office of New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport also announced Tuesday that it "filed a lawsuit against The GEO Group, Inc., which operates the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark," asking a court to "grant the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH) full access to the facility, which is the focus of well-documented concerns about inhumane and unsanitary conditions for detainees.
"If ICE and the GEO Group – with a $1 billion government contract – have nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump Administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building," Sherrill wrote on X in response to the announcement. "We are going to keep working for better conditions inside Delaney Hall until it is closed for good."
The Department of Homeland Security responded by calling the lawsuit "frivolous."
"ICE is committed to transparency, and Delaney Hall complies with all required state and local laws. Just last week on May 28, four representatives of the New Jersey State Health Department arrived at approximately 11:00 AM. They entered the facility and inspected the food service department. The inspection of the kitchen was completed and they departed around 12:30 PM. We will continue to grant state and local inspectors’ access to the facility where appropriate," it added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the GEO Group for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano, Preston Mizell, Alexandra Koch and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
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