Ms. Rachel teams up with N.J. Democrat to protest Delaney Hall: ‘It just broke my heart’

Updated: Jun. 11, 2026, 10:15 p.m.
|Published: Jun. 10, 2026, 9:37 a.m.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J, speaks during a Senate Homeland Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)AP


By Lauren Sforza | NJ.com


Ms. Rachel, a popular children’s entertainer, teamed up with U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) on Tuesday to condemn the separation of children from their parents detained at Delaney Hall.

Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, visited the immigrant detention center in Newark on Monday to meet with children whose parents have been detained. In recent months, she has been an outspoken advocate of children and their families who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In a video shared by Kim on Tuesday, Ms. Rachel described her visit to Delaney Hall. She also blasted Dilley Immigration Processing Center — a detention center in Texas — for detaining children.

Ms. Rachel thanked Kim for speaking out against the conditions of Delaney Hall and showed him letters from children being held in the Texas detention center. The video was taken in the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

“Senator Kim, thank you so much for taking the time to look at the letters and the children at Dilley Immigration Detention Center, who’ve been in there sometimes for many months and who are still there now, and for reading their words and hearing their voices. It means the world to us,” she told Kim.

“I also want to thank you so much for all you’ve done for Delaney Hall. I was there yesterday, and I was up till 2am worried about these kids and families. They’re so wonderful, and they just miss their parents so much. And the trauma was just very obvious. And it just broke my heart,” she said.

“Loving our neighbors is our resistance.”

 May 7, 2026

“Loving our neighbors is our resistance.”

The following reflection is written by Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace Kathy O’Leary, who serves as coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey. Kathy is a lead organizer of the ongoing presence of support and resistance outside Delaney Hall, the massive ICE detention center in Newark.

Some people know Delaney Hall as the immigration detention center where the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city was taken into custody by ICE. However, to the hundreds of volunteers and thousands of visitors who have spent time there over the last year, it is the place where our kidnapped neighbors and loved ones are being held.

Doremus Avenue, where Delaney Hall is located, is not an easy place to be. It is in Newark’s “chemical corridor” surrounded by industrial facilities spewing various odors and toxins. It is a four lane road heavily traveled by trucks leaving the nearby port; a freight line across the street carries garbage to a nearby incinerator. Only a few blocks away to the south is one of the largest sewage treatment plants in the country. The management of the for-profit facility, GEO Group, has provided no parking, and until about February, provided no indoor waiting area for visitors.

Over the past year we have fostered a community that includes the visitors and volunteers. We bring what we need to be able to stay outside the facility, either to wait to get in or to offer help and support to those who are waiting. In the summer we bring things like cold water in coolers filled with ice to make the heat bearable and umbrellas to block the sun. In the winter we bring hand warmers, blankets, hats and gloves and hot coffee. We always have snacks and sometimes hot food. We set up pop-up tents and tables at the edge of the driveway to hold the “compliance clothing” that we loan to people who are wearing something that does not meet the dress code. We dubbed it the “radical hospitality zone.”

At the end of January, after several snow storms and bitterly cold nights, Essex County came through with a tent made of heavy vinyl which was set up on property adjacent to Delaney Hall. Our radical hospitality zone moved into the radical hospitality tent which is where we distribute diapers, grocery store gift cards, and pantry bags and where we offer hot coffee and food.

The visitors who are touched by the care they receive will often return with food and supplies or to help translate. It is common for people who have been released to come back and visit. Volunteers who come and witness the dedication of the visitors and the warmth and energy that a friendly face provides to someone who is incarcerated will offer to visit those who have no one.

Street Church Speaking in Tongues outside of Delaney Hall ICE detention facility 6.7.26

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 P.S. 

Louise Scott-Rountree Councilmember At-Large, City of Newark   

Newark's Councilwoman At Large, Reverend Louise Scott-Rountree Speaks

Magnificent humanity and shared responsibility at Delaney Hall

Sr. Susan Rose Francois of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace poses next to the sign outside the family and detainee support tent in front of Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey. (Courtesy of Eyes on ICE NJ/Joseph O'Leary)

by Susan Rose Francois

NCR Contributor

View Author Profile

June 1, 2026

For more than a year, a network of community leaders has provided public witness, solidarity and mutual aid in support of detained immigrant neighbors and their families at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

Delaney Hall opened in May 2025 and is operated by the private prison corporation GEO Group under a 15-year $1 billion government contract. It is the largest detention center on the East Coast. Five miles from my convent, it has been on my radar for over a year but has just recently entered the national consciousness due to a courageous hunger and labor strike by those held captive behind its walls.

The Eyes on ICE NJ coalition includes a diverse collection of organizations: Catholics like the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and Pax Christi New Jersey, other faith groups, peace organizations, earnest people from local community and political organizations and immigration advocates. Then there are just ordinary folks who are looking for a way to make a real difference in the face of the cruelty that is happening in our name. We are committed to a common mission to oppose Delaney Hall and the unjust operations of ICE through nonviolence, mutual aid, radical hospitality and interfaith cooperation until the facility ceases operations. We are here for the long haul, and we center the concerns of our immigrant neighbors who are detained and the real needs of their families left behind. For the past year, volunteers have been present every visiting day to staff the "Radical Hospitality" tent or to peacefully stand vigil outside the facility on non-visiting days.

I have come to consider my fellow volunteers as my friends and could not help but think of them as I read these words from Pope Leo XIV in Magnifica Humanitas:

[B]uilding a world in which everyone can flourish requires shared responsibility and courage. No one can singlehandedly bear the weight of the challenges the world is facing, just as no one is so weak that they cannot play their part, for "power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9). … We should not be intimidated by tensions or differences because they can become creative forces when guided by shared responsibility.

I'll be honest: We don't always at first agree on details, but we agree on our values and that is what matters. We agree that the cruelty happening in our name is unacceptable. We believe that our friends in detention and their families come first. This isn't easy on the best of days, and it has become even more difficult with the recent attention and activity outside Delaney Hall this past week. The increased focus was sparked by a family-led press conference the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, highlighting the inhumane conditions their loved ones are facing. More than 300 people held at Delaney Hall then went on a hunger and labor strike to raise awareness and concern for the most vulnerable among them.

Delaney Hall hunger strike ignites a week of violence, full report

 

 

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On the above May 25, 2026 video at Delaney Hall, Newark NJ @ approximately 0:43 Mins. Kason Little identifies himself as a Community Organizer and Activist. Here's some information about Kason Little, found on CANARY MISSION: 

Last updated: Dec. 7, 2025

Kason Little
Status: Unknown
State: New Jersey
Organizations: BDS, BLM

Kason Little

Kason Little [Kason J. Little] led chants at the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in 2024. Little called for Israel’s destruction and spread hatred of America online in 2024.

Little was featured in an April 30, 2024, Instagram video leading a chant at the encampment and then shouting [00:00:58]: “End the genocide! F**k Israel! Free Palestine!”

During the course of the video, Little stood in front of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, which had been stormed and barricaded by encampment protesters immediately after midnight on April 30, 2024. The video was captioned: “ Protesters Occupy Columbia University…”


On April 30, 2024, participants in Columbia’s second pro-Hamas encampment forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves in the building and taking three Columbia custodians hostage. Protesters also vandalized [00:00:55] and destroyed university property inside the hall. A police raid on Hamilton found knives, gas masks, ropes and literature that read: “...DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere!...DEATH TO AMERICA!...”

On April 21, 2024, Little posted a photo of himself on Instagram. He wrote: “Nightlong encampment at Columbia University in solidarity with the students demanding full financial divestments from Israel. We're in solidarity with Palestine!!!...#FreePalestine.” The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Also on April 21, 2024, Little posted on Instagram a photo of himself with another anti-Israel protester from the Columbia encampment. The post said: “Live from Columbia University…demanding all student demands in solidarity with Palestine are met!!...”

Columbia is located in New York, New York.
Kason Little Led Chants at the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

"rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" @ Delaney Hall 6/4/2026

Here you hear a female voice from the protesters utter "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr", which is strangely similar to what the late Radical Black Poet, Amiri Baraka (father of Ras Baraka Mayor of Newark, NJ) once expressed.

¤¤¤

Wikipedia:

Baraka even uses onomatopoeia in "Black Art" to express that need for violence: "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuht ..." More specifically, lines in "Black Art" such as "Let there be no love poems written / until love can exist freely and cleanly", juxtaposed with "We want a black poem. / And a Black World", demonstrate Baraka's cry for political justice during a time when racial injustice was rampant, despite the civil rights movement.[40]

More from Amiri Baraka (Wikipedia)

In April 1965, Baraka's "A Poem for Black Hearts" was published as a direct response to Malcolm X's assassination, and it further exemplifies the poet's uses of poetry to generate anger and endorse rage against oppression.[42] Like many of his poems, it showed no remorse in its use of raw emotion to convey its message.[43] It was published in the September issue of Negro Digest and was one of the first responses to Malcolm's death to be exposed to the public.[44] The poem is directed particularly at black men, and it scoldingly labels them "faggots" in order to challenge them to act and continue the fallen activist's fight against the white establishment.

References:

Video: https://youtu.be/vl51LjNlfT4?si=ifuk4FApwduuybmi

Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiri_Baraka

Signal Chat Exposes NJ ICE Delaney Hall Protest Structure

 

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P.S.

                                                    May 2026

https://youtube.com/shorts/WgE8RLi5tes?si=gXT-gR2adrketjms

June 4, 2026

Inside the secret network fueling anti-ICE uprisings

DHS Highlights Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested in Sanctuary New Jersey in the Last Week Amid Leftist Smears Against ICE

DHS Highlights Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested in Sanctuary New Jersey in the Last Week Amid Leftist Smears Against ICE

Release Date: June 2, 2026


Sanctuary politicians need to stop peddling false smears about ICE detention facilities and start thanking ICE law enforcement officers for getting these thugs off New Jersey streets

WASHINGTON – The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement highlighting criminal illegal aliens U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested in New Jersey over the last week, including murderers, sexual predators, burglars, and violent assailants.

“While sanctuary politicians and leftist agitators spread false smears about the Delaney Hall ICE facility, the brave men and women of ICE are still hard at work removing criminal illegal aliens from New Jersey. In New Jersey, they have removed dangerous criminal illegal aliens with criminal histories that include voluntary manslaughter, sex assault, burglary, fraud, terroristic threats, and aggravated assault,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “These sanctuary politicians need to stop peddling false smears about ICE detention facilities and start thanking ICE law enforcement officers for getting these thugs off New Jersey streets. We will not let violent rioters slow us down from making America safe again.”

BREAKING: ICE Protests as Lawsuit Filed to SHUT DOWN Delaney Hall ICE Prison

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka seeks closure of Delaney Hall detention center | NBC 4 New York

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Recent chronology of New Jersey State Police at Delaney Hall Detention Center

New Jersey State Police officially took over public safety operations outside Newark's Delaney Hall immigration detention center on Friday afternoon, May 29, 2026. [1, 2]

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport ordered the state police deployment to de-escalate tensions and replace federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Prior to this, ICE agents had been involved in volatile, multi-day standoffs with demonstrators protesting a mass hunger strike inside the facility. [1, 2, 3]

Timeline of State Police Involvement

●Thursday Night, May 28, 2026: Initial state police presence began minimally with a few vehicles directing traffic near the facility. [1]

●Friday, May 29, 2026: State police officially relieved federal ICE agents. Troopers constructed a designated, barricaded "protest zone" to separate demonstrators from the facility's main gates. [1, 2, 3]

●Friday Night, May 29, 2026: The New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response Team clashed with protesters while attempting to clear a path for vehicles. Troopers in full riot gear issued dispersal orders and deployed tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and rubber bullets to push crowds back. Six demonstrators were arrested. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

●Saturday Night, May 30, 2026: Clashes escalated further. State police used horses, riot shields, and physical barriers to repel protesters who reportedly charged police lines, threw projectiles, and lit tires on fire. Three additional arrests were made. [1, 2, 3, 4]

●Sunday Night, May 31, 2026: Following a mandatory 9:00 PM curfew enacted by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, state police and local authorities moved in to clear the area. Troopers utilized a crowd-control tactic known as "kettling" to surround and arrest remaining curfew violators, sweeping up several credentialed journalists in the process. [1, 2]

●Monday, June 1, 2026: State police handed primary command over to the Newark Police Department. Officers set up a strict perimeter blocking activists and media at the intersection of Doremus Avenue and Wilson Avenue, roughly half a mile from the facility. [1, 2]


Source: AI (Google Artificial Intelligence)

Mass Arrests protesters KETTLED outside Delaney Hall with Massive Police Response 5.31.26

 

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ARREST At Delaney Hall Curfew, Massive ammount of Police, Horse Mounted PD and Riot Shields

FREEDOMNEWS TV - NATIONAL / SCOOTERCASTER

May 31, 2026

BREAKING: "Everybody get back!" Massive ammount of police RUSH towards Anti-ICE protesters outside Delaney Hall after 9pm Curfew..

5.31.26

FULL PRESSER: Gov. Sherrill provides update on Delaney Hall protests

 

Anti-ICE protesters pooling cash for riot gear, military-grade goggles to fuel Newark mayhem

N.Y. Post cover Sunday, May 31, 2026

By
Katherine Donlevy,
Geoff Earle and
Gabrielle Fahmy

Published May 30, 2026
Updated May 30, 2026, 5:23 p.m. ET


Anti-ICE protesters are pooling cash to deliver riot gear to the front lines of the ongoing chaos in Newark outside the Delaney Hall detention center — fueling criticism that the mayhem is a well-funded, coordinated effort by outside “extremists.”

Donations are pouring in to help the protesters buy “helmets” and “knee/wrist/shin/arm guards” along with military-grade goggles to stay outside Delaney Hall, according to one list blasted out on social media by lefty political activist group the 50501 Movement, which was behind the No Kings anti-President Trump rallies.

The protesters specifically listed MIL-PRF-32432 shatterproof goggles — which are considered “U.S. military specification” that ensures protection from “battlefield-level projectile threats” — on their wish list.

Protesters asked for a wish list of supplies amid the ongoing demonstrations in Newark.

Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post

The armor was listed as a high-priority need to be dropped at the chaotic protest site, while organizers from further away were supporting the purchases by sending cash to the personal Venmo of organizer Jenny Garcia.

The tools are allegedly necessary for their battle against the “ICE Gestapo,” according to Virginia-based 50501, which formed last year and was behind an eponymous nationwide protest. Its name stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 day.”

“This is professionalizing an attack on federal officials, and it makes it dangerous for everyone, makes it dangerous for themselves, for elected officials, for the obviously for the men and women who work there, and it’s totally unacceptable,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) told The Post.

“It makes you think that they obviously want to get involved in bruising altercations that they’re going to be aggressive, and if they are, they should be arrested. That is not what a peaceful protest is. That is not what First Amendment rights are,” he continued, calling the demonstrations “virtue signaling.”

The untold amount of pooled money was also being spent on wheelchairs, P100 respirators — which are considered “oil-proof” — Sudecon, a decontamination wipe used to remove irritants such as pepper spray, and “welding gloves for incoming tear gas cannisters.”

LIVE: Anti-ICE Protesters Outside Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey

 

NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill gives updates on Delaney Hall protests in Newark

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Anti-ICE Protest Standoff at Delaney Hall - Newark, New Jersey

Gregg Jarrett: Lawmakers are embracing lawlessness

 

 

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Tear Gas and Barricades Outside Newark ICE Center as Protests Escalate | APT

 

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