World News | 4 Detainees Have Escaped from an Immigration Detention Centre in Newark, New Jersey, DHS Says

Newark (US), Jun 13 (AP) Four detainees broke through a wall and escaped from a federal immigration detention centre in Newark, New Jersey, amid reports of disorder breaking out there, according to Senator Andy Kim and the Department of Homeland Security.

Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, spoke on Friday outside the Delaney Hall detention centre. He said he was told detainees managed to break through an interior wall that led to an exterior one and from there were able to escape to a parking lot.

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More "law enforcement partners" have been brought in to find the detainees missing from Delaney Hall, according to an emailed statement attributed to a senior DHS official whom the department did not identify. The statement also did not specify which law enforcement agencies are involved, and authorities have not released the names of the escapees.

DHS identified the four escapees as two Colombian men who were arrested on burglary and other counts and two Hondurans, Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, who were arrested on aggravated assault and other charges.

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Newark's mayor cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility on Thursday night and protesters outside the centre locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.

GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the facility for the federal government, said in a statement that there is "no widespread unrest" at the facility.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opened a 1,000-bed facility there this year under a 15-year, USD 1 billion contract as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Protest at the detention centre

Photos and video from outside the facility on Thursday showed protesters pushing against the gates amid word that detainees inside were upset about delayed meals.

Amy Torres, executive director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said some officers pepper sprayed, tackled and dragged protesters away from the facility. She said some protesters had minor injuries, but no one was hit by the vehicles.

Mustafa Cetin, an attorney for a client who has been detained in Delaney Hall for about two weeks, told The Associated Press that things turned violent late on Thursday afternoon after detainees' meals arrived hours late.

"Apparently, the guards lost control of them," Cetin said. "And they started to, you know, create a disturbance. They came back up to the third floor, where my client is. Basically, they blocked off cameras, security cameras, and some of them made their way into a housing unit with a very thin, shallow wall, and they knocked it out."

Kim said he had heard about problems related to food and an odour in the water. Kim also said it seems as if there will be "major movements" of detainees out of the facility over the next 24 hours. He said he was seeking "full confirmation" about that.

A message seeking comment was left with the Homeland Security Department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Attorneys with clients inside Delaney Hall have had calls cancelled and were not able to get inside the facility on Friday, according to Araceti Argueta, a spokesperson for the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit that represents immigrants.

Reports of inmates not getting enough food

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who has been critical of Trump's immigration crackdown, early on Friday called for an end to this "chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked".

"We are concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees," he said.

In a phone interview on Friday, Baraka pointed to the city's lawsuit against GEO Group and said it did not have the proper city permits to operate. The company has said it had proper certification from the city from an earlier contract.

"It is one chaotic moment after the next," Baraka said.

In a statement on Friday, American Friends Service Committee said people inside the facility reported getting small portions of food, with breakfast at 6 am, dinner at 10 pm and no lunch.

In a statement on Friday, GEO Group said it was dedicated to "providing high-quality services to those in our care".

Miguel Orea, programme manager for First Friends of New Jersey and New York, a non-governmental organisation that provides assistance to detained immigrants, was at Delaney Hall on Friday and saw families trying to visit detainees being turned away.

"Delaney Hall is in a strict lockdown," Orea said. "They have suspended all visitation until at least next week."

He said that families who have been in contact with detainees told him that the cafeteria is being used to hold people who will be transferred elsewhere, affecting the meal service. Orea said the complaints began after the facility was opened in May.

"The families have told us that the conditions were extremely poor, that the food service was poor," Orea said. He noted that in some cases, detainees would receive breakfast at 8 am and dinner not until 10 pm, with no other meal in between. In some cases, he said, they received only two slices of bread. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)