Championing illegal alien criminals by storming an ICE facility in New Jersey is not the way to win hearts and minds.
Championing illegal alien criminals by storming an ICE facility in New Jersey is not the way to win hearts and minds.
P rogressive Democrats have decided that the way to win over Americans is to disrupt operations at a contract detention center in Newark, N.J., where federal immigration officials are detaining illegal aliens — the vast majority of whom have criminal records, alleged ties to the vicious MS-13 criminal gang, and often both.
Recent polling indicates that the public overwhelmingly supports President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, which prioritize the detention and deportation of “criminal aliens” (i.e., aliens with records of violating ordinary criminal law, as opposed to identity-related crimes that are typical of aliens living and working illegally in the U.S.). There is similarly strong support for the arrest and deportation of gang members, such as those associated with MS-13, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Yet New Jersey Democrats have caused a spectacle at Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention center that the Trump administration has contracted to detain aliens. Generally speaking, these are illegal aliens in removal proceedings — i.e., both aliens who have no right to be here in the first place, and aliens whose criminal records make them removable (there is overlap in those categories). Delaney Hall is run by GEO Group, a private prison company based in Florida. In February, it reached a $1 billion deal with the government to operate the detention center in Newark for 15 years.
As I have pointed out, the immigration enforcement problem we have in this country is not our laws, which are strong; it is the fact that Congress has failed to provide adequate resources for enforcing those laws (coupled with the facts that the Biden administration refrained from enforcing the laws and that the Democratic Party is hostile to the principles that we should even have borders, let alone enforce our laws). Case in point: We have about 20 million illegal aliens in the United States, all of whom are theoretically subject to removal and many of whom are criminals. Yet Congress has provided for just 47,600 detention spaces — and that is significantly up from the Biden years.
You don’t have to agree with the Trump administration’s flouting of due process requirements to grasp that this is why the administration has been trying dubious tactics, such as (a) invoking the Alien Enemy Act against Tren de Aragua (an international criminal gang that, like MS-13, was recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization) in order to attempt summary deportations (i.e., removals outside the due process requirements of immigration law); (b) making an agreement with El Salvador to house deportees in its notorious prison; and (c) moving to use space at the detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. The administration needs detention facilities. As a practical matter, it is simply impracticable to move through even the expedited removal process unless there is capacity to hold aliens for a few weeks.
Democrats are trying to portray Delaney Hall as Trump’s gulag. But the Obama administration used it as an ICE processing center, and Democrats were not heard to make a peep. There is nothing wrong with the facility. The Trump administration insists that claims it lacks proper permits are false. The hard left simply objects to the enforcement of immigration laws.
Last week, as our James Lynch reported, Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, was arrested by federal authorities when the protest he was leading disrupted operations at Delaney Hall. Baraka is in a crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination to run for governor, as the current governor, Phil Murphy, is term-limited. The mayor has apparently decided that the way to appeal to the rabidly anti-Trump, progressive Democratic base is to pick a high-profile fight over deportation.
I’m predicting that this is short-term gain but long-term pain. Baraka is betting that because the base is more politically active than rank-and-file Democrats and thus exercises more influence over party leadership, fighting the fights the base wants fought will help him get nominated. Maybe . . . but it’s not likely to help him in the general election, if he gets that far.
Though it’s a blue state, New Jersey nearly elected a Republican governor in 2021: Murphy barely eked out the win against Jack Ciattarelli, who is now seeking the Republican nomination to run again, with Trump’s support. Ciattarelli will campaign as a strong supporter of Trump’s border security and immigration enforcement policies. Pace the Dems’ party line, these policies are not unpopular in the Garden State. Not only did Ciattarrelli perform well above expectations last time around; Trump — who spends summers in Bedminster, N.J. — was himself very competitive in 2024, losing New Jersey by less than six points (after losing by 16 points in 2020). Kamala Harris took the state by the narrowest Democratic victory margin in 32 years.
Congressional New Jersey Democrats joined with Mayor Baraka at the Delaney Hall agitation last week. As Fox News reports, Representatives LaMonica McIver, Robert Menendez Jr., and Bonnie Watson Coleman told CNN in a joint appearance that they were justified in “storming” the detention center because Trump is “weaponizing law enforcement.” When the gates were opened so that an ICE bus could enter, they rushed onto the facility grounds, along with other rabblerousers.
ICE temporarily detained Menendez and Coleman at a security checkpoint along with other protesters. They were eventually released without charges — at least for now. As DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin asserted:
Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. 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.
McLaughlin is right. Obstructing government proceedings, trespassing on restricted grounds, damaging property being used for federal enforcement operations, and assaulting federal officers are all crimes. The House members were not engaged in legislative acts for which they have immunity; they were at a prison interfering with its operations and endangering law enforcement officers. As a matter of prosecutorial discretion, the Justice Department and the administration obviously have to weigh whether prosecuting elected officials is worth the effort: The penalties would be minor and, among the Democratic base, would make martyrs out of the pols. On the other hand, the administration is probably salivating over a public fight in which Democrats are spotlighted breaking the law while they champion alien criminals.
The lawlessness continued Monday when about four dozen protesters, claiming to be clergy members from “Faith in N.J.,” “Faith in Action,” and “Pax Christi,” linked arms to block the gates at Delaney Hall. Also on hand, naturally, were such leftist groups as “Resistencia en Acción New Jersey,” whose leader, Ana Paola Pazmino, first threw herself in front of a car that was trying to leave the facility, then scuffled with police, who finally arrested her.
On cue, McLaughlin was back in the media, rhetorically asking: “Who do they want released from Delaney Hall? The child rapists, murderers, drug traffickers, MS-13 gang members or known terrorists?” On that point, DHS has also released profiles of a number of Delaney Hall detainees — in the main, illegal aliens said to have gang ties and charged with murder, rape, child endangerment, and other serious felonies.
The Delaney Hall melees have lefty darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threatening Trump border security “czar” Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. In a sympathy ploy, AOC focused on Representative Coleman, the Camden Democrat who participated in the unrest even though she is 80 years old: “You lay a finger on Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, and we’re gonna have a problem.”
I wouldn’t wager that Homan and Noem are shaking in their shoes. Politically speaking, the “problem” AOC is threatening to incite is one the Trump administration relishes.
Shortly after Trump won the election and tapped Homan for the most visible role in effectuating the incoming administration’s top priority, Homan warned that prosecutorial action would be taken against officials who obstructed enforcement of the immigration laws. I observed at the time that Homan was right: Democratic officials, particularly at the state level, cannot be commandeered into helping the feds enforce immigration law, but if they harbor illegal aliens or impede enforcement operations, they risk being charged with criminal offenses.
When Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested a couple of weeks ago for attempting to help an illegal alien evade arrest, I opined that in a sensible time, when it was unmistakable that the public wanted immigration laws enforced, there would be bipartisan cooperation among elected officials in enforcing them. No one should want to be on the wrong side of an 80–20 issue.
But even after costing their party the 2024 election, progressive Democrats can’t help themselves. Voters will make them pay.