Four detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark escaped Thursday night amidst disorder at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement center.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FBI announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the four detainees that escaped, according to a DHS statement.
The statement identified the four men that escaped as Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, both of Honduras, and Joan Sebastian Casteneda-Lozada and Andres Pineda-Mogollon, both from Colombia.
Bautista-Reyes and Sandoval-Lopez were both initially detained in Passaic County, according to the DHS statement. Casteneda-Lozada was initially detained in Atlantic County and Pineda-Mogollon was initially detained in New York City, the statement said.
Additional law enforcement resources have been brought in to search for four detainees that escaped Thursday night, according to a statement from a senior DHS official.
DHS officials denied there was “widespread unrest” at Delaney Hall in their statement Friday.
The statement did not specify which law enforcement agencies were involved in the search.
Inmates at the facility pushed down a wall Thursday night after frustrations boiled over about delayed meals, an attorney for one of the inmates told NJ Advance Media.
An attorney for an inmate that was not involved in the incident, but is being held at Delaney Hall said food was the issue inmates were upset over.
“It’s about the food, and some of the detainees were getting aggressive and it turned violent,” attorney Mustafa Cetin said. “Based on what he told me it was an outer wall, not very strong, and they were able to push it down.”
Essex County Sheriff Amir D. Jones said deputies responded to Delaney Hall following reports of a disturbance.
“When our officers arrived, the situation had already been resolved. At no point did our personnel enter the facility—we remained on the perimeter throughout,“ Jones said.
The recently reopened 1,000-bed detention center is operated by the private company GEO Group and has been criticized by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for refusing city inspections.
“As stated in our ongoing legal complaint, the City of Newark has never received permit applications from GEO Group to construct an interior wall,” Baraka said in a statement Friday.
“Had it applied for a Certificate of Occupancy and/or construction permits, the city would have inspected the integrity of that wall. This chaotic outcome is precisely why the City has ordinances requiring all facilities, including this ICE facility, to apply for the proper permits – and why we have taken the GEO Group to court to ensure the safety of both detainees and their own employees.
Baraka was arrested at the facility and accused of trespassing in May, but the federal charges were quickly dropped.
Baraka, a Democrat, had visited Delaney Hall several times with city officials in the days prior to his arrest to serve GEO Group representatives with citations for failure to allow inspections.
“We demand immediate answers and clear communication with the GEO Group and the Department of Homeland Security,” Baraka said. “We must put an end to this chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked.”
U.S. Rep LaMonica McIver, D- 10th Dist., was recently charged with felony assault in connection with the incident that led to Baraka’s arrest in May.
Outside Delaney Hall on Thursday evening, about three dozen people from groups that hold regular protests there, witnessed dozens of heavily armed authorities arrive at Delaney Hall at about 6 p.m.
The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice posted several photos and videos on their X account of the police activity, including officers gearing up in tactical combat gear.
Whitney Strub, a Rutgers University-Newark history professor and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, showed pictures of several vehicles from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office and Newark Police positioned in front of Delaney Hall’s main gate.
Sometime around 6 p.m., Strub said he and other protesters inhaled what they thought was “some kind of gas” that had wafted over them. “We were all coughing at the same time,” Strub said.
Just after 9 p.m., a crowd of about 40 protesters blocked an SUV from exiting an ancillary gate at Delaney Hall, forcing it to back up back through the gate, which then closed, an NJ Advance Media reporter witnessed.
Stories by Matthew Enuco
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