Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on Friday after protesting outside a new immigration detention center in New Jersey. The center, called Delaney Hall, is run by the private prison company GEO Group and can hold up to 1,000 people. Baraka has strongly opposed the center’s opening and believes it should not be allowed to operate due to building permit issues.
Baraka, who is running to replace Governor Phil Murphy, has openly challenged the Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration. He has spent the week protesting against the new detention center, which sits right next to a county jail and used to be a halfway house.
On Friday, things got intense. Baraka tried to join a tour of the facility with three New Jersey lawmakers: Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman. But federal officers stopped him from going in.
According to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, “There was yelling and pushing. Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka in handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”
Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Baraka was arrested for trespassing. She said he “ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security personnel to leave Delaney Hall,” and that he had “chosen to disregard the law.”
The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this…
— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) May 9, 2025
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She also confirmed he had been taken into custody.
Habba: I can confirm that we have put the Mayor under arrest..
MacCallum: He’s in custody?
Habba: Yes pic.twitter.com/1dLaAXWDVy
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 9, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security also released a statement, giving a very different version of the event. They claimed that “a group of protesters, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the department, said it was “beyond a bizarre political stunt” and added that the protest “put agents’ and detainees’ safety at risk.” She continued, “Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”
However, Baraka’s supporters and immigrant rights groups say the mayor did nothing wrong. They argue he was peacefully protesting and never “broke into” anything. Many feel this is an example of how the government targets people who speak up for immigrants and against private prison deals.
Baraka has been outspoken ever since the federal government awarded GEO Group a 15-year contract earlier this year to operate Delaney Hall. The deal is worth $1 billion, which is considered extremely large and long by ICE standards. It was announced as part of Donald Trump’s push to increase immigration detention nationwide. At the time, ICE already had funding for about 41,000 beds, but Trump wanted many more.
Baraka filed a lawsuit against GEO Group shortly after the contract was announced. He has also said the facility lacks proper permits and should not be allowed to open.
As of Friday afternoon, Baraka’s communications office had not returned emails or phone calls. However, Kabir Moss, a spokesperson for Baraka’s campaign, said, “We are actively monitoring and will provide more details as they become available.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security insists that the center is fully legal. “The facility has the proper permits and inspections have been cleared,” the department stated.
Delaney Hall’s new role as a detention center has worried immigrant advocates, especially because it is run by a for-profit company. Groups like the ACLU and Human Rights Watch have raised concerns in the past about poor conditions in privately run detention centers, including lack of medical care and mistreatment.
Featured image via Screengrab
