State’s response to Delaney Hall protests targets journalists

Freedom of the Press Foundation hosted an important webinar on June 12 featuring journalists who had experienced police brutality and harassment while covering daily protests outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey, beginning in late May.

Caitlin Vogus, the senior adviser for advocacy at the Foundation, hosted the program, which featured freelance journalist Amanda Moore, independent photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Wali Khan, and Stephanie Sugars, the senior reporter at the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. All three journalists had spent time documenting events outside Delaney Hall and experienced the day-to-day state brutality. Adam Rose, deputy director for advocacy at the Foundation, also participated in the discussion.

The three journalists described how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used batons, chemical irritant sprays, pepper balls and bright lights against protesters and press alike. New Jersey state troopers engaged in a higher level of crowd control through the use of munitions, tear gas and mounted officers who advanced into the crowd. Local Newark police were predominantly involved in enforcing a curfew briefly put in place by Newark Mayor Ras Baraca, establishing barricades and limiting press access during mass arrests.

Employees of GEO Group, the private corporation that runs the detention center, were seen attacking protesters and press with baseball bats.

Khan, who described seeing other journalists shot with pepper spray, said: “I was batoned once in the back of my legs and sprayed multiple times. The ICE agents were very trigger happy.

“After the curfew started, we were not allowed to wear [protective] masks or to bring in a bag [for equipment], which made it difficult to do my job as a photojournalist. … It felt like police forces and GEO Group were working in tandem to make sure journalists were hurt.”

Sugars added, “At a press conference of state police, they said that the media was not exempt from curfews, but at another point they would tell us we were exempt, and cops on the ground were inconsistent.”

Police forces attack press, smash  equipment

Moore described the potency of the pepper spray that took “24 to 36 hours to wash out of my hair.” She described local police using flash grenades and targeting local journalists, saying:  “I may be the last journalist standing who was not hit by a baton. Federal agents also used tasers.”

Sugars noted that the experiences Khan and Moore described coincide with 50 press reports of assault that her organization has been tracking. The state forces were “aiming at camera lenses, and spraying gas at respirator vents,” she said. “There were reports of three cameras damaged in one night by officers swinging batons. Police used bright lights to target journalists. We’ve seen this in other cities, but at Delaney it was most clear –– Delaney was the worst.”

Sugars noted that one officer was laughing as he deliberately stole and smashed $10,000 worth of camera equipment.

The speakers addressed the issue of violations of First Amendment protections for the press. Sugars noted that press should have been exempt from the curfew order, but this safeguard was violated in Newark. “Masks and other personal protective equipment were also banned, which made doing our job more difficult.”

Twelve journalists were among the 63 people arrested on May 31 when state police kettled and detained them all. Rose noted that a video of the mass arrest shows demonstrators chanting, “press don’t leave.” 

Sugars noted that three of the journalists arrested were initially charged with felonies, until the charges were downgraded to misdemeanors that have not yet been dismissed: “Los Angeles police started using this tactic of keeping potential charges in place for up to a year. The threat of facing multiple charges has a chilling effect.”

ICE has also targeted journalists from Spanish-language media who were covering anti-ICE protests. Mario Guevara — a well-known reporter for Mundo Hispanico for many years, who more recently had established a digital news outlet called MG News — was deported from Atlanta on Oct. 3 by ICE. (Reporter deported )

The escalation of attacks on journalists, which ICE agents began in California in 2025, has resulted in serious injuries –– including photographers losing eyes from projectiles. There have been successful, even multimillion-dollar lawsuits against the municipalities involved, which Rose noted should be a deterrent.

However, he cautioned, “The militarization of state and local police has increased the potential danger to journalists to the point that their protective gear –– including masks and goggles –– has to be military grade.”