The Delaney Hall detention center has become a flashpoint in the clash between New Jersey’s leaders and federal immigration authorities, after Governor Mikie Sherrill said Wednesday that officials were still refusing to let her inside. The repeated denials, she argued, raise “serious questions about what is happening behind its walls.”

A Governor Turned Away

Sherrill, a Democrat, said she had met Tuesday evening with the relatives of migrants held at the Newark facility, which has emerged as a central target of protest against President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Those family members, she said, described “heartbreaking reports of unsafe, inhumane and unconstitutional conditions” inside the 1,000-bed jail.

In a social media post, Sherrill noted that detainees themselves had asked to see her and that she wanted to meet with them. Her first attempt to enter came on Memorial Day, when she was turned away. The friction deepened on Tuesday, when state Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed a lawsuit after state health officials were denied access to the medical unit and several other parts of the facility during an inspection.

The standoff reflects a key legal distinction. Members of Congress are permitted to conduct oversight visits at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities whenever they choose, and tours of Delaney Hall by lawmakers are routine. Other officials, including governors, must first request permission from the nearest ICE field office, according to a February 2025 ICE memo. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said it had no immediate comment on the governor’s statement.

Protests Grow More Volatile

Sherrill’s public rebuke comes amid mounting tension outside the facility, where demonstrations have grown increasingly heated over the past two weeks. Mostly peaceful protesters have gathered daily since Delaney Hall reopened last year, but the crowds swelled after detainees launched what they described as a hunger and labor strike on May 22 to spotlight conditions inside. The center is operated by the GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest private prison companies.

Matters came to a head over Memorial Day weekend. Authorities used tear gas and batons as protesters refused orders to disperse. Sherrill made the decision to send in state troopers on horseback and on foot, a move sharply criticized by immigrant rights advocates, while the city of Newark briefly imposed a curfew on nearby streets.

By Wednesday evening, the mood had calmed considerably. About 75 demonstrators kept vigil along a stretch of Doremus Avenue near one of the main gates. The gathering was peaceful, even festive, with some in the crowd swaying to a mix of dance music, salsa, punk rock, rap, and reggae.

Dueling Accounts of Conditions

What actually happens inside Delaney Hall has become a matter of fierce dispute. Earlier Wednesday, Representative Analilia Mejia, a Democrat representing New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, pressed Trump’s homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, about conditions during a committee hearing in Washington.

Mejia said detainees she met during inspections complained of poor sanitation, spoiled food, and inadequate medical care. She described people who received their medication only sporadically or had dosages reduced without consulting their doctors. Some, she said, weren’t even told what they were being given and were simply handed a fistful of pills.

Mullin pushed back, defending the care at ICE facilities and asserting they employ more medical staff than most state prisons. That argument echoed one made last week by Representative Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, after he toured the site. Van Drew described clean facilities, good conditions, and basic care, claiming what he saw surpassed conditions found in some nursing homes.

A Broader Battle

The confrontation fits a larger pattern for Sherrill, a former congresswoman who built her campaign for governor around opposition to Trump. In March, New Jersey became one of the first states to bar ICE agents from wearing masks while on duty, prompting a federal lawsuit the following month seeking to block enforcement. Sherrill has also sued ICE over a planned detention center in a warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey.

The dispute over Delaney Hall, then, is less an isolated episode than the latest chapter in an escalating struggle between state leaders and federal immigration enforcement, one with no clear resolution in sight.