A New Jersey ICE detention facility is back in the news due to protests, and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has had enough of the shenanigans.

This particular facility, Delaney Hall, has been a flashpoint for protests over the last year, as it was the location where Congresswoman LaMonica McIver learned that you don’t put hands on law enforcement and walk away with no consequences.

This time, the protests began again on Memorial Day, when Governor Mikie Sherrill and Senator Andy Kim decided to join protests at Delaney Hall. What a way to remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service to the nation, right?

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., met with the families of detainees being held at a migrant detention facility that critics say should be shut down amid “unacceptable” conditions and an ongoing hunger strike.

Kim and Sherrill, both Democrats, have asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for access to the Delaney Hall center in Newark, where hundreds of illegal immigrants are being held.

“I’m back at Delaney Hall with @GovSherrillNJ and other members of the NJ delegation to meet with families of detainees and listen to community advocates,” Kim wrote Monday on X. “We’re working together to make sure they’re heard and to speak out with them. Delaney Hall must be shut down immediately. ICE cannot be allowed to continue operating in this way.”

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said Kim personally called Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and that he was allowed in the facility to conduct his congressional oversight responsibilities. However, the spokesperson criticized Sherrill over he appearance at the detention center.

“Governor Sherrill’s visit to Delaney Hall is nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside the facility,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Yesterday, approximately 125 agitators surrounded Delaney Hall Detention Facility, many carrying anti-ICE signs and Antifa flags. They formed a human chain around entrances to the facility and set up barricades, blocking all entries and exits.”

Senator Kim ended up catching some pepper spray as the protesters had to be forced back. Well, that’s what happens when you keep company with people who want to riot. Regardless, the stories of a “hunger strike” have continued to fuel the protesters, and only now is Governor Sherrill realizing that she MIGHT have let this grow out of hand – and that would be after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called her out on X for not allowing state police to help control the protesters. Now the governor is singing a different tune.

I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.

For that reason, New Jersey law enforcement is today establishing a peaceful, protected, protest zone in the area outside Delaney Hall.

My Administration will be working together with community members, faith…

— Governor Mikie Sherrill (@GovSherrillNJ) May 29, 2026

Her full statement reads:

I will not give ICE the pretext to expand operations in our state.

For that reason, New Jersey law enforcement is today establishing a peaceful, protected, protest zone in the area outside Delaney Hall.

My Administration will be working together with community members, faith leaders, advocates, and State Police to help people move there today.

Our top priority is public safety – and we need to take this opportunity to lower the temperature now.

And “lowering the temperature” is necessary because a protester was caught on video threatening to murder an ICE agent, and his family.

This is a crime under New Jersey’s terroristic threats law. But due to sanctuary policies, there are no local police there to make an arrest.

It also may be a federal crime under 8 USC 115.

A line is crossed when you say you *will* do something, not just say you hope they die. https://t.co/wvfNmFMEDc

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 28, 2026

That happened on Wednesday night. On Thursday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche went on Fox News, vowing that this guy was going to be found and arrested. That part of the interview is at the very beginning of the video below.

“That’s a federal crime,” Blanche said on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” on Thursday. “Not only threatening the ICE officer — but think about how disgusting this individual is by threatening his wife and his children with death.”

In the video, the protester can be heard taunting the officer: “I will kill your whole f—ing family. Your whole f—ing family is dead. Your children and wife all dead. I have your face mother—er! All dead!”

Blanche said the officer was just doing his job and “standing there.”

Well, by Friday morning Governor Sherrill was saying that “we need to lower the temperature,” and news stories started breaking that the conditions at Delaney Hall are not “unacceptable.”

NEW: What are illegal migrants eating at the Delaney Hall ICE facility?

Everything from burritos to jambalaya – according to DHS.

DHS sharing the list of breakfast, lunch, & dinner entree options for detainees offered by GEO group facilities. pic.twitter.com/tkS3WFyb9N

— Alexis McAdams (@AlexisMcAdamsTV) May 29, 2026

And about that hunger strike…

While immigration activists and Democratic lawmakers claim there’s a hunger strike causing turmoil at an ICE detention center in New Jersey, The Daily Wire has learned that the narrative may be far from the reality.

The Delaney Hall detainees engaging in a purported “hunger strike” are opting to not eat their regular meals while going to the commissary to purchase snacks instead, according to a source familiar with the situation. Meanwhile, activist groups are claiming that detainees are being fed spoiled food and meals contaminated with worms.

The source said the commissary snack store has seen an “increase in sales and detainees maxing out on items they can purchase weekly.”

So-called hunger strikes like the one playing out at Delaney Hall are all too common in ICE detention centers and the playbook is usually the same, former ICE New York field office deputy director Scott Mechkowski told The Daily Wire.

“I’ve seen real hunger strikes during my time as an ICE official, managing detention facilities. What’s happening at Delaney Hall is not a hunger strike,” Mechkowski said.

“When detainees are buying up Honey Buns and Snickers bars, and those with money are helping others get snacks, that’s not a hunger strike, it’s just a publicity stunt,” he added.

So the narrative that has been cooked up for these protests looks to be falling apart. This was followed by Acting AG Blanche announcing the arrest of the guy caught on video making the death threats. Blanche minced no words.

Told you. @FBI just arrested the man who threatened to kill ICE officers and their families. FAFO. https://t.co/ai2Y46nmOR

— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) May 30, 2026

Hopefully, with this arrest and the “protest zone” that Governor Sherrill will create, along with the news that the detainees are LARPing a hunger strike and eating junk food out of the commissary instead, things will begin to calm down at Delaney Hall once more. At least, until the protesters get bored again and the Democrats need another photo op to cosplay along with them.

Featured image: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, official portrait by Ryan M. Biller (Department of Justice), cropped, public domain