Delaney Hall immigration detention center in New Jersey is now the site of the most significant mass protest since the uprising against ICE in Minneapolis in January. This protest—focused against the horrible conditions in the center and the vicious attacks from ICE—has involved masses of people, detainees, and high-level New Jersey Democratic politicians.

Hundreds of detainees inside Delaney launched a powerful hunger and labor strike on May 22, sending shockwaves into the broader society and halls of power. This is still unfolding, with growing support and also escalating repression against these protesters and their supporters on the outside.

This is a window into the advancing fascism, and to some of the basis to defeat it. Digging deeper, it is also an indicator of the bankruptcy of the whole system of capitalism-imperialism, the need for a fundamentally different system, and the basis for real revolution. 

Hunger strike by detainees calls forward mass struggle

The strike started ten days after 300 detainees issued a powerful letter exposing how they’re being stripped of their basic rights, and that the government is violating its own laws. They were kidnapped and detained without even meaningful hearings, threatened with deportations to countries they’ve never been to, kept in inhumane and unhealthy conditions. The immigrants who signed this letter come from diverse countries throughout Latin America and the world: Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba, Haiti, Afghanistan, Turkey, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Costa Rica, China, Honduras, Hungary, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Jamaica. Some have been here in the U.S. for many years. This was the second of, as of now, three letters issued from the detainees at Delaney.

Their second letter says in part, “We feel vulnerable and, in a way, kidnapped—detained without justification—not to mention that we are being tortured physically and psychologically due to the poor food resources provided in these detention centers. We see with deep helplessness and frustration that our due process, rights, and defense have been violated, disregarding benefits granted under the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments of the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. Families are being destroyed and separated, where there are children, nieces, and minors who are suffering a very strong psychological impact because they do not understand the situation, and in some cases they have witnessed the arrests of their relatives, who have been struck by tragedy and the economic burden, since in most cases we are heads of household.” (See the full letter.)

They have an overarching demand to be freed. Four demands being popularized are: 1) a meeting with the governor of New Jersey; 2) the immediate release of people who are vulnerable: people who are sick, elderly, young or pregnant; 3) meaningful hearings; and 4) an end to coercion to sign “voluntary” deportation papers.

Protests have been happening every day outside the facility in support of the hunger strikers, with the wife of hunger striker Martin Soto (who has now been transferred), Gabriela, playing a dynamic role in initiating the support protests, working with the coalition Eyes on ICE and the organization Cosecha New Jersey. Democratic elected officials have felt the need to weigh in on this, coming to inspect the facility and meet with the families and show some support to the strike. 

This has been highly contended by the fascists, with Senator Andy Kim having to directly call the head of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to get access to the facility, and the New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill denied access. Senator Kim was also hit with pepper gas outside the facility when he tried to negotiate with ICE to stop them from attacking protesters, and they shot pepper balls into the crowd anyway. This is the same detention center where last year ICE attacked and arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver. McIver is still facing bogus assault charges.

The struggle intensified when, on the third day of the hunger strike, ICE tried to shut down the strike and support protests by transferring Martin Soto to another facility. Protesters courageously tried to block the cars transferring Martin and were attacked and pepper-sprayed by ICE. The protests have continued every day and ICE has continued to brutally attack people. “Border czar” Tom Homan has threatened on Fox News to “force-feed” hunger strikers, while DHS is denying the hunger strike is real. On Thursday, May 28, there were reports of ICE guards beating detainees. The next day, the governor brought in the state police.

Fascist dehumanization and ethnic cleansing of immigrants

Markwayne Mullin, the new head of DHS after Kristi Noem was fired, dismissed the hunger strike with full Nazi swagger, saying ICE is giving detainees “the calories they want” and calling the hunger strike a few people refusing to eat unless they get their “ethnic” food. He said "[T]hey can go back to their country and get whatever food they want.” DHS has issued statements denying the lack of medical care and unfit food at Delaney, denying the hunger strike, calling the detainees there the “worst of the worst,” painting the protests as people coming to violently attack ICE, and blaming the Democratic officials for that so-called violence. 

In fact, ICE’s own data shows that both in the country as a whole and at Delaney, more than 70 percent of detainees have zero criminal record (no convictions or charges). And despite DHS insinuating the Delaney detainees are “murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and drug traffickers,” the March data shows “Not a single conviction for homicide, sexual assault, or drug trafficking was present.” 

Lawyers who represent detainees at Delaney have spoken out on the conditions, describing people sleeping on the floor, cold cells with no blankets, and lack of access to medical care. New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill said the NJ Department of Health has not been allowed by ICE to do a full inspection. When Senator Kim visited the facility, in addition to hearing from people who have not been given needed medical care, he was shown a document by the detainees that “shows that a single judge had 74 cases before them in one day (about 1 every 5 min). This has caused many of them to be stuck in detention for 10 months or more.” 

Across the country, more than 60,000 people are locked in these concentration camp detention centers in the same situation and conditions. Immigrants are being completely dehumanized. 

This dehumanization is now the new norm being instituted by what is in fact a FASCIST regime. An outrageous page now posted by the official White House website called “ALIENS” paints immigrant people as dangerous space invaders who “do not belong here.” Listen to this poisonous demonization, referring to ICE seizing immigrants off streets, or from their homes, schools or workplaces: “If you’ve witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed. The alien is in good hands. We will take care of it… and return it safely to its place of origin.” Note: not human being, but “it.” In Nazi Germany, this kind of rhetoric—calling human beings “it”—was the first step to mass extermination.

Sharp divide in the ruling class, in a system that has no answers

The re-institution of blatant, brutal, white supremacy and xenophobia by the Trump fascist regime represents a different form of rule of the U.S. capitalist-imperialist system. The way in which the Republican fascist section of the ruling class violently targets their Democratic rivals is also a break from how the system has been maintained. Rep. McIver is still facing charges from last year, and DHS Secretary Mullin has attacked Governor Sherrill for refusing to allow state police to assist ICE. 

The Democrats have real differences with this open, brutal, xenophobia. The fact that they have felt compelled to protest this—and even get arrested and brutalized by the fascists—has contributed to calling attention to the horror. But ultimately these top Democratic politicians represent the same system as the fascists, and it is this system and its relentless dog-eat-dog drive for profit that has plundered the economies and distorted the societies from which these immigrants have been driven. In short, as representatives of that system—even “liberal" political representatives—they have no fundamental answers for the problems wrought by that system. In a sharp illustration of this reality, Governor Sherrill, who continues to issue statements upholding the humanity and rights of the people detained at Delaney and called for shutting it down, now HAS also called in the state police to try to “cool things down.” And what did those police do? Their first act was to insist the protesters dismantle the aid tents they set up, declare a time that the protesters had to leave, and then in full riot gear advance on and very viciously attack the protesters. 

The dehumanization, deportation and vicious attacks on refugees and immigrants is an expression of the fact that fascism is coming to power as a twisted, horrific “answer” to the reality that this system of capitalism-imperialism has run up against its limits. The vacillation of Gov. Mikie Sherrill sharply illustrates the equally important fact that the Democrats cannot fight fascism the way it needs to be fought and they have no answer to this.

The real crisis, and the source of the problem

There IS in fact a migration crisis, with hundreds of millions compelled to flee their homes facing dangerous desperate journeys just to survive. But 1) this is global; 2) it is caused by capitalism-imperialism and cannot be solved in any good way under this system; but 3) it CAN begin to be solved through a real revolution and the institution of a new socialist republic in North America founded on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, written by the breakthrough revolutionary leader and founder of the new communism, Bob Avakian.

To see what we mean about the system creating this horror, look, for example, at Venezuela, where a number of the hunger strikers at Delaney came from. Between 2015 and 2022, seven million people had to flee Venezuela because they couldn’t get basic nutrition and the health care system had collapsed. This was a DIRECT RESULT of harsh economic sanctions imposed by Obama in 2015, which took a further leap by Trump in 2019. But U.S. military intervention and domination in Venezuela goes back more than 100 years, twisting the whole economy of Venezuela to producing oil for U.S. companies (and the whole imperialist system’s reliance on fossil fuels has brought the planet to the point of being almost unlivable). 

When the then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, moved in 1998 to take back the oil and make a few reforms, the U.S. tried for over 20 years to overthrow him and then his successor, Nicolas Maduro, and the U.S. installed sanctions they knew would cause tremendous suffering for the Venezuelan people. Now, as part of sharpening contention with capitalist-imperialist China, which in recent years has been the main buyer of Venezuelan oil, Trump fascism is going forward with out in the open, brutal domination: bombing boats at will, kidnapping Maduro, and setting up a compliant regime.

You could look at any of the countries represented in that signed letter from the Delaney Hall detainees and see a similar example of the life-stealing and planet-destroying workings of capitalism-imperialism—the system underneath how and why people have ended up so far from home and into this hell of the “American dream.” 

The Trump fascists see immigrants pouring in as a threat to the social cohesion of the USA. These fascists are even more forcibly enforcing the white supremacy baked into this country’s foundation. The fascist program is one of “ethnic cleansing,” as part of an attempt to reforge the country on the brutal basis of: Make America White Again. 

The Democrats have real differences with this. They see a continued need for immigrant labor for all sectors of the economy, from high tech to medicine to construction to agriculture; and they differ over how, not whether, to carry out the repression and deportation needed to “regulate” all this. 

But neither side has any fundamental answer to this problem.

We need a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system

In the work Humanity on the Brink, A Forced March into the Abyss, or Forging a Way Forward Out of the Madness? Bob Avakian says, 

to the degree that things are maintained within the limits of this system, this will actually have the effect of furthering the horrors for humanity that are built into this system, while also reinforcing and giving further impetus to the underlying economic—and the social and political—forces that will strengthen the fascism that has already shown great strength in this country (and a number of others).

Avakian, the breakthrough revolutionary leader who has developed the new communism, wrote the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America that lays out a sweeping vision, concrete blueprint and firm foundation for a new, emancipating, system.

This Constitution outlines a new economic system that takes the ownership of the means to create wealth, or more scientifically: takes the means of production out of the hands of individuals and puts them in the service of humanity. In this new economy, the first criteria will be “advancing the world revolution to uproot all exploitation and oppression and to emancipate all of humanity.” On that basis and with those goals, this Constitution deals with the “migration problem” in a way unimaginable and impossible under this capitalist system. It says, “The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic….” This Constitution grants asylum for those whose liberatory work have caused them to be repressed. It applies real due process when its immigration procedures have been violated. It guarantees humane treatment even for actual criminals in prison. And it establishes a process of unleashing all of society “...to pursue the truth wherever it leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity, and in this way to continually learn about the world and be better able to contribute to changing it in accordance with the fundamental interests of humanity.”

The battle of Delaney Hall shows the stark divide splitting this country, right up through its ruling class. It shows the determination of the fascists to impose an even more horrific form of rule and the need, and the basis, to unite very broadly to prevent this. We revcoms will be in that battle, putting forward our understanding of the root of the problems humanity faces and our aims: pushing as far as we can to bring forward masses of people to fight for a radically new world. 

To those who have been in this battle and to those who have been inspired by it: we challenge you to look deeper to the source of this misery in the system itself… to learn about the solution to this madness in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America… and to get with the movement for revolution. These heavy times are getting heavier by the day. The future is increasingly up for grabs; which one we get depends on us.

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