Newark officials instituted a mandatory curfew Sunday around Delaney Hall after ongoing protests led to clashes between protesters and police officers late Saturday, even as Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced that family members will again be able to visit loved ones at the immigration detention center.

Three people were arrested after the skirmish, according to Sherrill.

Protests have roiled Delaney Hall since last week over conditions inside the facility. Family visitation had been suspended after protesters blocked entry to the facility on May 24, but Sherrill said Sunday that the Department of Homeland Security agreed to restart it.

The curfew announced by Mayor Ras Baraka came after continued clashes between police and protesters outside the jail, including a Friday night confrontation that led police to temporarily clear the area outside the detention center.

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said Sunday that protesters were “collecting wooden poles and other blunt-force objects for use as weapons.” According to one group taking part in the protests, law enforcement fired rubber bullets at protesters.

Baraka’s curfew, which began Sunday at midnight, will be enforced between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in all areas within a half mile of Delaney Hall.

Doremus Avenue will be closed to all pedestrians, and only vehicles with “verified official business” will be allowed in the area.

Tensions came to a head Saturday evening as the protesters clashed with counterprotesters from the Proud Boys extremist group, as well as New Jersey State Police troopers called to the scene.

During the scuffle, masked people pushed into an area reserved for law enforcement, according to Sherrill. Three of the people detained at the scene were arrested, she confirmed later Sunday. It was unclear what criminal charges they face.

The group attacked barriers surrounding the facility, threw projectiles, and lit tires on fire in the street, she said Sunday.

Officers at the scene were not wearing protective gear and were there “ensuring protesters and counter protesters had areas to exercise their rights safely,” Sherrill said. Additional officers had to be called to the scene as the situation escalated.

“Let me be clear: Violent, chaotic clashes hurt everyone,” she said in a news conference Sunday. “They put the lives of both protesters and law enforcement in danger. They take the focus away from people inside Delaney Hall and their families, and they raise the temperature with ICE.”

Sherrill promised to ensure public safety, and decried the violence seen Saturday, saying she doesn’t want to give ICE “an excuse to surge into our communities.

“That would make the situation more dangerous and put more New Jerseyans at risk,” she said. “It’s time to bring the temperature down.”

Members of Eyes on ICE, a coalition of protesters, have organized the demonstrations outside of Delaney Hall. Sherrill on Sunday described the initial group of protesters as “a mix of local and out-of-state, and it often seems what we are seeing is this long-term peaceful protester.”

She said members of the group helped families of detainees understand their visitation rights and provided them with legal representation.

However, more recently, the group has morphed to include more radical protesters who come to the facility at night, Sherrill said, pushing out the more peaceful, “grassroots” group out of fear of violence.

Reports from the scene show that some of the protesters were doused with chemical agents they referred to as “tear gas” and were confronted during Saturday’s fight by state police troopers carrying riot shields.

Members of the group posted on social media that mounted troopers used horses to push them back, and footage from the scene showed protesters throwing rocks and other objects at the troopers.

The group first organized outside Delaney Hall in early May, and has maintained a constant presence there, calling for the release of the people detained inside.

In a statement Saturday, Davenport said protesters shot fireworks and threw gas canisters at the troopers while ignoring requests to clear a path to the facility.

Organizers for Make the Road New Jersey, another group present at the protest, disputed Sherrill’s version of events, saying that state police made no effort to de-escalate the situation this weekend. Their presence, according to Nedia Morsy, the group’s director, only made things worse — they fired flash-bang grenades at protesters, and shot at them with rubber bullets, she said in a statement.

“We are baffled that the State has chosen to use excessive force against unarmed community members exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” Morsy said. “At the same time, we have yet to see the State enforce the law against rogue federal agents who are terrorizing those speaking out against ICE’s abuses inside Delaney Hall, including our neighbors who are detained, as well as medics, protesters, and the press.”

Morsy, in an interview later Sunday, rebuked the governor’s characterization that two distinct groups of protesters were involved, with one being more violent than the other.

“Everyone is there to shine a light on what’s going on inside Delaney and lift up the demand of the folks within,” she said. “The same people there during day are there at night, and the only thing that makes them violent are when police show up in riot gear and escalate things.”

Morsy reiterated that law enforcement, including both federal immigration agents and state police, have been the ones to initiate violence by deploying tear gas and other measures. She said she was doused with a chemical agent on Monday by ICE agents who attempted to corral protesters into a specific area.

She said the group will continue to advocate for the detainees, who she said have been retaliated against inside Delaney for participating in a hunger strike, even as the new curfew looms Sunday evening.

“Folks will continue to lift up the demands of the folks detained,” she said. “That’s the thread that the people outside are committed to not let fall away.”

While enforcing the curfew, Newark police will issue a warning to people to leave the area, according to Baraka. Those who remain in the area in violation of the curfew will be removed and given summonses, and may face other legal actions.

(Coincidentally, Baraka himself was arrested for trespassing outside of Delaney Hall last year during a separate protest.)

Davenport said her office planned to protect the right to peaceful protest, but denounced any violence committed by protesters.

“We will continue our efforts to work with Governor Sherrill and the Administration to ensure that detainees at Delaney Hall are treated with humanity and decency,” Davenport said.

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who was pepper-sprayed by federal agents when he visited Delaney Hall last week, said Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union" that he was “hugely concerned” about the situation.

“I am so worried about my state,” Kim said. “I’ve not seen my state with this level of precariousness through my entire time in elected office, so I’m worried about what comes next.”

He said he understood why people were angry and frustrated “feeling like they’re seeing and hearing about things happening on our soil with our taxpayer dollars that is not in, not in line with our values as a nation.”

Kim said his visits to the detention center were intended to “make sure that there is a level of dignity and decency in this country, and that we can try to make sure that people can get the care that they need, and we can have accountability for what is happening in our name.”

After the curfew announcement, Sherrill disclosed on social media platforms that the Department of Homeland Security agreed to resume family visitation.

While limited visitation began Sunday at noon, regular visitation won’t restart until Monday, with law enforcement escorting family members into the detention center.

Families with loved ones at Delaney Hall should contact the detention center directly for details on the visitation process.

Sherrill urged people to keep the protests peaceful so conversations can continue and escalation on ICE’s part is avoided.

“I continue to call on DHS to provide appropriate care and medicine for all detainees, give detainees a meaningful opportunity to review their cases, stop pressuring detainees into signing deportation documents, be transparent about who is being held in this facility, and ultimately close this facility,” Sherrill said in the statement.

Delaney Hall is operated by the GEO Group, a Florida-based private-prison firm that contracts with the federal government to run inmate detention facilities around the country.

In Pennsylvania, GEO had a presence locally for decades: The company ran Delaware County’s George W. Hill Correctional Facility from its construction in 1998 until 2022, after the county council voted to terminate its contract and took over operations.

At the time, it was the only privately run county jail in Pennsylvania, and was mired in controversies surrounding inmate deaths, attacks on guards, and alleged mistreatment by supervisors.

The jail’s longtime warden, John Reilly Jr., resigned in 2019 after an Inquirer investigation revealed allegations of repeated racist and abusive behavior from his subordinates and colleagues. Reilly denied doing so in his resignation, and disputed The Inquirer’s reporting.

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