After being pepper sprayed by ICE agents outside of Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) told CNN: “I tried my best to get between the ICE agents and the crowd as the ICE convoy decided to just go ahead and plow through the crowd, which was absolutely so dangerous… I certainly had irritation and burning sensation in my eyes and my throat. But more broadly, this was something that was avoidable…ICE decided that they had enough.”
Sen. @AndyKimNJ on being pepper sprayed by ICE yesterday:
“I tried my best to get between the ICE agents and the crowd as the ICE convoy decided to just go ahead and plow through the crowd… I certainly had irritation and burning sensation in my eyes and my throat. But more… pic.twitter.com/RviEBgJQt0
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) May 27, 2026
At President Trump’s Wednesday cabinet meeting, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed the incident and said of the protests outside of the detention center: “It shows the radical left Democrats’ priorities when they decide to go out and protest a detention center where we’re housing rapists, child predators, murderers, drug dealers. And they choose Memorial Day of all the time to go protest something.”
Mullin, who noted that New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was also at the protest, said local police refused to respond [to ICE requests] and created a barricade inhibiting ICE movement. According to Mullin, “ICE had to go out there and remove the barricade.”
Mullin added, “Then you have one of the senators complain because he got splattered with a, you know, pepper ball. I’m sorry. You probably shouldn’t have been there.”
NEW: DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin responds to “radical left” ICE protests in New Jersey:
“It shows the radical left Democrats’ priorities when they decide to go out and protest a detention center where we’re housing rapists, child predators, murderers, drug dealers, and they choose… pic.twitter.com/sjbDjzxIfA
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 27, 2026
In his account of the incident on X, Kim portrayed his presence at the facility as part of his job — he had been granted oversight access by ICE prior to his arrival on the scene.
DHS issued a statement saying that Kim and Mullin had spoken beforehand and that the senator’s access had been confirmed. “After Senator Kim personally called Secretary Mullin, DHS made sure he was allowed in the facility to conduct his congressional oversight responsibilities,” DHS said. (Sherill said she was denied oversight access by ICE.)
Kim wrote, in part: “What I witnessed and experienced today was shameful…Delaney Hall is a failure; it’s this administration’s failure. The only way to make this right for our communities is to shut it down and make sure the failures we’ve seen never happen again.”
I saw chaos inside and outside of the ICE detention center Delaney Hall today. Detainees protesting the lack of due process, the disgusting food and poor treatment while their families and advocates stood outside calling for help. Instead of engaging with me and others about the… pic.twitter.com/5XSeZWzoky
— Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) May 26, 2026