The Strikers and Their Families Come First
This past week has seen it all. A lot has been written and said.
There is no doubt that the violence perpetrated by law enforcement has taken over the headlines. Joint operations between Newark Police, New Jersey State Police, and ICE outside of the Delaney Hall concentration camp are the most distressing news this state has seen so far. We have even spoken about it multiple times, knowing that several in our team had flashbangs explode inches away from us. It is valid and deserved that the repression against the immigrants’ rights movement is called out with no filters.
That said, we must be watchful of the effects this media angle will have. If we are rigid in this view, then we will lose our purpose: to support the strikers.
Remember the demands, not made by anyone but the strikers:
- To speak with Governor Mikie Sherrill.
- To release young, elderly, or pregnant detainees, and those with serious medical conditions
- To grant the detainees habeas corpus and immigration hearings.
- To end the coercion that forces detainees to sign “voluntary” deportation forms.
And, overall, the total freedom of those trapped inside.
It is a shame that some press offices and media outlets have refused to mention the strike, only addressing the protests without highlighting why people gather outside of the concentration camp. There’s no redundancy in saying it over and over again: there’s a hunger and labor strike.
A hunger or labor strike does not happen from one day to another. No one says “let’s launch a strike” and expects hundreds of others to join immediately. Indeed, to convince people to risk their health in the cause of freedom is a delicate and drastic endeavor. According to testimonies from released detainees, this took several months to organize, going back to January 2026, if not earlier. In their dire situation, the organizers of the hunger strike have prevailed, and they will keep doing so for as long as people outside believe in them and keep showing up.
Therefore, it is critical that we center the strikers and their families. It is not in anyone’s best interest for the topic of the state-sponsored violence outside to take over the entire conversation, as bad as it may be.
Yes, the violence outside is an important topic, but wasn’t the violence inside already alive since Delaney reopened in May 2025, way before the strike? The horrendous conditions caused an uprising among the detainees in the month that followed, which most (traditional) media minimized as a 4-person breakout. In essence, what is really new to the relatives of the detainees, who are always the witnesses of the abuse? The sleepless nights after a phone call from inside are real. How can a family fight to get its loved one outside of this hell without a stable income? The tears of children who wonder when mom or dad will come back are real. What do their remaining caretakers tell them to console them? How can the adults console themselves while this is happening?
None of this should be doom and gloom, however. To be in the struggle for liberation is to have fervor in victory—think of the chant “I believe that we will win!”—and that we are the catalysts for it. That is why our focus is to support the families.
Meet Jorge, who was kidnapped by ICE and is now participating in the strike. His story tells it just as it is:
“Jorge, a hardworking father of three, is currently detained at Delaney Hall after ICE was reportedly called during a fingerprint appointment in Elizabeth, NJ. Jorge came to the U.S. from Guatemala as a minor in 2005 and has spent years working in roofing and contracting to support his family.
Now his wife, Tatiana, and their two children — Santi and Jorge, — are struggling to survive without him. Tatiana is not currently working, the children are unable to visit their father, and the family is facing overwhelming financial hardship. Their babies require special milk due to stomach problems, making groceries and basic necessities even more expensive.”
We ask the reader to donate to the GoFundMe page. We are working with Tatiana to fight for Jorge’s freedom, and we will put all our efforts into it if that means he walks out of Delaney’s gates.
Support Jorge’s struggle with $20 here!
We will exhaust whatever capacity we have to put our love for our community into action, because we protect each other. For a long time, we’ve known that no political messiah will come and pick us up from the hole this fascist, racist system has dug and thrown us in. We will climb out, and we will be free.
