VIDEO: ICE Protests Turn Violent – Senator PEPPER-SPRAYED…..

When federal agents are pepper-spraying a sitting U.S. senator outside a detention center while migrants inside risk their lives on hunger strike, it raises a stark question: who is Washington really protecting?

Story Snapshot

Demonstrators and officials report that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used pepper spray and batons on protesters outside Delaney Hall in Newark, with U.S. Senator Andy Kim among those hit.
Inside immigration detention centers nationwide, hundreds of migrants have turned to coordinated hunger strikes to protest conditions they describe as dangerous, degrading, and medically neglectful.
Homeland security officials repeatedly deny both the scope of the hunger strikes and claims of substandard conditions, creating a credibility battle between detainees, advocates, and the federal government.
The clash in Newark and parallel hunger strikes in Michigan and Pennsylvania highlight a deeper breakdown of trust in federal power that worries both conservatives and liberals.

Pepper Spray, Protesters, and a Senator in the Crossfire

Video and local coverage from Newark show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in helmets and tactical gear clashing with anti-ICE protesters outside the Delaney Hall detention facility, with demonstrators saying agents used pepper spray and batons during an early morning scuffle.^[4] Reports from the scene describe a tense standoff at the facility gates, where protesters formed lines and some surrounded vehicles as agents attempted to move detainees, leading to the decision to deploy chemical irritants to push the crowd back.^[4]

Witness accounts and social media posts indicate that U.S. Senator Andy Kim was present at Delaney Hall attempting to calm tensions when pepper spray drifted or was directed into the area where he stood, briefly incapacitating him and several nearby protesters. Those posts portray Kim stepping between agents and demonstrators as Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to clear a path, an image that supporters say reflects concern for civil liberties and critics frame as an ill-advised intervention in an active enforcement operation.

Dueling Narratives: Excessive Force or Necessary Control?

Federal officials have offered a sharply different account from protesters, arguing that officers at Delaney Hall faced an increasingly volatile crowd that obstructed facility operations and created safety risks for staff and detainees. This kind of justification closely tracks earlier Department of Homeland Security statements in other confrontations, where spokespersons said demonstrators were “obstructing and assaulting law enforcement” and damaging government property when agents used pepper spray in crowd-control roles.^[5] Supporters of the Newark operation see the Delaney Hall deployment as a similar response to a rapidly escalating situation.

Civil rights advocates, immigration lawyers, and some members of Congress point to a larger pattern in which chemical agents are used not as a last resort but as a fast way to shut down protest and avoid uncomfortable scrutiny.^[3] Senator Dick Durbin’s earlier condemnation of a prior operation, where an American citizen and his infant daughter were pepper sprayed during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, is frequently cited as an example of how these tactics can sweep up bystanders who pose no threat.^[3] In Newark, critics argue that any use of force that leaves a sitting senator and peaceful demonstrators gasping for air only deepens public suspicion that federal agencies answer more to bureaucratic instincts than to constitutional limits.

Hunger Strikes Inside: Why Detainees Are Risking Their Lives

While tensions boil outside the fences, detainees inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities across the country are resorting to hunger strikes, describing conditions that they say leave them with no other leverage. At the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, advocates report that hundreds of people have joined a renewed hunger strike to protest what they call hazardous conditions, delayed or denied medical care, spoiled food, and long waits for legal help.^[1] A former detainee described numerous people with serious illnesses going untreated, with some also refusing work assignments in protest.^[1]

Michigan’s entire House Democratic delegation sent a formal letter warning that reports from detainees and families “stand in stark contrast” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s claims that there is no hunger strike and that conditions at North Lake are not substandard.^[3] The lawmakers cite accounts that detainees began refusing food over “dangerous” conditions and poor medical care, arguing that such consistent testimony from different sources cannot be dismissed as rumor.^[3] Similar unrest has surfaced at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, where at least two detainees have died in the past year, reigniting local calls to end the county’s contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.^[5]

A System Built on Denial and Retaliation Claims

Medical and human rights organizations that have studied immigration detention say hunger strikes are a predictable outcome when people feel trapped in a civil system with criminal-style confinement and few real avenues for redress.^[2] Physicians for Human Rights describes facilities where migrants can be held for months or years, often amid alleged mistreatment, medical neglect, and barriers to due process, conditions that push detainees to use their own bodies as the last bargaining chip through refusing food.^[2] Research on detention centers documents a pattern in which officials respond to hunger strikes with denial, disciplinary measures, and sometimes force-feeding, rather than independent investigation and transparency.^[7]

On Memorial Day (May 25), U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) skipped traditional observances to instead travel to an ICE detention facility in Newark.

While at the protest outside Delaney Hall, Kim was caught in a cloud of pepper spray amid clashes between demonstrators and federal… pic.twitter.com/ngmPNRrg5n

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) May 26, 2026

Advocacy group Freedom for Immigrants characterizes hunger strikes as a last resort by people who feel the system leaves them no lawful way to demand humane treatment or timely hearings.^[6] Reports gathered by that group and others describe detainees who fear retaliation—such as solitary confinement, transfers far from family, or loss of phone access—if they speak out.^[6]^[7] When these accounts are set beside repeated official statements that “there is no hunger strike” and that all facilities meet standards, many Americans across the political spectrum see confirmation of a deeper problem: a federal apparatus that closes ranks instead of confronting failure.