Andy Kim

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim was pepper sprayed outside Delaney Hall on Monday afternoon, he told NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network by phone Monday evening after the incident.

New Jersey's junior senator was visiting the facility in support of detainees who are protesting their treatment with a hunger strike that started late last week.

'Chaos' inside Delaney Hall, NJ Sen. Andy Kim says

Kim spoke of the “chaos” at the facility and the “lawlessness of the Trump administration” that has led to the conditions inside and out.

The senator explained that, just to get inside the detention center, he "personally called [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Markwayne Mullin [to] get his intervention.”

When he exited the detention center, Kim said he found a “standoff” because armed federal officers had brought out an armored vehicle and were working creating a barricade to keep demonstrators away from Delaney Hall's fencing and entrances.

Kim said that the protesters present “kind of lined up in front of them” and that he “tried to get in between the ICE officers and the crowd to de-escalate.”

“ICE officials told me that they were going to push through the crowd with their vehicle and they wanted to get some vehicles out of there,” Kim said. “I tried to arrange a situation where people would not get hurt, where there wouldn’t be a confrontation. Unfortunately, ICE just continued on.”

He said he “immediately saw people getting tackled and brought to the ground” and that ICE “started pushing through with their vehicles.”

NJ Sen. Andy Kim describes how he was hit with pepper spray

Kim said he again ran up to try and put himself between the ICE agents and the crowd to prevent things from escalating when the agents “started shooting at us with pepper balls and using pepper spray.”

“I tried to do whatever I could standing in the middle to keep people safe,” he said.

While several of his congressional colleagues had been at Delaney Hall earlier in the day and had joined him on previous visits, they were not present when the confrontation occurred, Kim said.

With his eyes and throat still burning, Kim said that the “chaos manifesting in the streets of New Jersey” is the result of the “lawlessness and unaccountability perpetuated by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.”

He highlighted a bill currently before Congress that would provide “tens of billions of dollars” to fund ICE while the war in Iran continues and affordability issues persist throughout the country.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill denied access to Delaney Hall

Gov. Mikie Sherrill tried to access Delaney Hall earlier Monday but was denied entry to the facility.

Christine Cuttita, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, called Sherrill's visit "nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside the facility."

Kim has visited the facility several times and spoke of the detainees he met inside including an 18 year old girl who wanted to return to her family and graduate from high school as well as a pregnant woman not getting the care she needs.

The senator said the conditions inside were “inhumane.”

The detainees have called for the release of individuals who are elderly, young, seriously ill or injured.

The strike followed complaints from detainees alleging medical neglect, lack of air conditioning, lack of food, and rotten and spoiled meals. On Saturday, May 23, immigrant advocates alleged that a few detainees involved in the strike were targeted for retaliation. One was threatened with solitary confinement, and at least two others had visit time cut to just 5 or 10 minutes, the advocates said.

What is Delaney Hall?

Delaney Hall opened on May 1, 2025, as a 1,000-bed private immigration detention center, as part of the Trump administration's aggressive push to expand detention capacity.

Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver, Nellie Pou, Analilia Mejia and Bonnie Watson Coleman have been conducting oversight visits to assess the alleged conditions.

McIver faces federal assault charges for allegedly hitting a federal law enforcement agent during a scuffle outside the facility last spring.

Kim said that the bigger picture is not about him or the condition he’s in but its “representative of the lawlessness that is happening right now.”

“We have to make sure we stay focused on those detainees that deserve more and certainly don’t deserve to be treated the way that they are, to the families that are just trying to look out for their loved ones and trying to push forward,” Kim said.