Bruce Convisor

For NPR News, I'm Bruce Convisor in Greenbrook, New Jersey.

Protesters and ICE agents have clashed periodically at Delaney Hall over the past week.

Videos and images from local media show demonstrators have attempted to physically block vehicles from leaving the facility.

ICE agents have responded to the blockades with pepper spray and physical force.

There are reports that hundreds of detainees are on a hunger and labor strike protesting the conditions inside the facility.

Democratic representatives that toured Delaney Hall this week said detainees had been given food that had maggots in it.

The New Jersey Department of Health sought to inspect the facility but was denied full access.

Governor Mikey Sherrill said denying access raises questions about what ICE is trying to hide.

For NPR News, I'm Bruce Convisor.

And I'm doing that to this day.

Demonstrators, many of them relatives of detainees, gathered outside Delaney Hall in Newark over the weekend.

They were protesting conditions inside the prison.

There are reports of prisoners being given rotten food and foul water, as well as a lack of medical care.

New Jersey politicians, including Democratic Senator Andy Kim and Congressman Frank Pallone, were given access to the 1,000-bed facility.

Kim called the situation inside the camp shameful.

He said the privately run camp under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security should be shut down.

At one point, a standoff between protesters and ICE agents got ugly.

Pepper spray was fired to disperse the crowd.

Senator Kim was among those who got hit.

A DHS spokesperson dismissed the protest as nothing more than a political stunt.