Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey said Wednesday that federal immigration officials were continuing to bar her from entering a detention center in Newark, raising “serious questions about what is happening behind its walls.”
Ms. Sherrill noted that she had met Tuesday evening with relatives of migrants being held at the Delaney Hall detention center, which has become a focal point of protest against President Trump’s immigration crackdown. She said that the relatives had shared “heartbreaking reports of unsafe, inhumane and unconstitutional conditions” inside the 1,000-bed jail.
“Detainees have requested to meet with me,” Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat, wrote in a social media post, “and I want to meet with them.”
Ms. Sherrill first attempted to enter the facility on Memorial Day but was turned away. On Tuesday, the state’s attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, filed a lawsuit after state health officials were denied access to the medical unit and several other areas of the facility during an inspection.
Ms. Sherrill’s public rebuke on Wednesday reflected the growing tension between New Jersey’s elected leaders and federal immigration officials as demonstrations outside Delaney Hall have grown increasingly volatile in the last two weeks.
Groups of mainly peaceful protesters have gathered daily outside the detention center since it reopened last year. But the crowds began to grow after detainees initiated what they have described as a hunger and labor strike on May 22 to draw attention to the conditions inside the facility, which is operated by the GEO Group, one of the country’s largest private prison companies.
The situation escalated sharply over Memorial Day weekend.
The authorities deployed tear gas and wielded batons as protesters resisted calls to disperse. Ms. Sherrill made the decision to send in state troopers on horseback and on foot, a tactic that has been sharply criticized by immigrant rights leaders. And the city of Newark temporarily imposed a curfew on the streets nearest Delaney Hall.
On Wednesday evening, a contingent of demonstrators continued to keep vigil on a stretch of Doremus Avenue adjacent to one of the main gates at Delaney Hall. The crowd, numbering about 75, was peaceful, even festive. Some demonstrators bopped their heads to dance music, salsa, punk rock, rap and reggae.
By law, members of Congress are authorized to conduct oversight visits at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency facilities at will. And tours of Delaney Hall by members of Congress are common.
But other public officials, including governors, must request permission from the nearest ICE field office, according to a February 2025 ICE memo.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said she had no immediate comment on the governor’s statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Representative Analilia Mejia, a Democrat who represents New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, confronted Markwayne Mullin, Mr. Trump’s homeland security secretary, about conditions at Delaney during a committee hearing in Washington.
She said she had met with detainees during inspections who complained about “poor sanitation, spoiled food” and a “lack of medical care.”
“I met detainees who not only were given their medication sporadically, or had their dosages lowered without consultation of their doctors, but I met detainees who were not even made aware of what medication they were given, just handed a bunch of pills,” Ms. Mejia said.
Mr. Mullin defended the care provided at ICE facilities, which he said have more medical staff members than most state prisons. It was a point that Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican from New Jersey, also made last week after he toured Delaney Hall.
“I saw good conditions, clean facilities, basic care and a detention center where ICE and D.H.S. are doing a hard job that keeps our communities safe,” Mr. Van Drew said in a statement. “Quite frankly, the conditions I saw today are better than what you see in some nursing homes.”
Ms. Sherrill, a former congresswoman, made her opposition to Mr. Trump the centerpiece of her campaign for governor.
In March, New Jersey became one of the first states to pass a law that bars ICE agents from wearing masks while on duty. (The federal government filed a lawsuit the next month that seeks to block the law from being enforced.) Ms. Sherrill has also sued ICE over a planned detention center in a warehouse in Roxbury, N.J.
Mark Bonamo contributed reporting.
