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NEWARK – EXCLUSIVE: Speaking with Fox News Digital at the site of a multi-day confrontation between anti-ICE protesters and federal law enforcement, Republican state lawmaker Paul Kanitra ripped into Democrats for demanding what he described as “five-star accommodations” for illegal immigrants.
Just days after many top New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Sen. Andy Kim, joined protesters outside of ICE’s Delaney Hall, Kanitra called Democrats’ handling of illegal immigration a “disgrace.”
“Democrats created this chaos with all their laws. Gov. Sherrill was in office for a couple of weeks before she passed three radical protective illegal immigration bills, taking the masks off of ICE agents, protecting their [illegal immigrants’] status here, giving them more benefits, and here she is out here knowing full well she wasn’t going to get in,” he said.
Democrats and protesters allege that detainees in the Newark ICE facility, known as Delaney Hall, have gone on a hunger strike in protest of inhumane conditions.
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On Monday, Sherrill posted on X that she had attempted to enter Delaney Hall after hearing “heartbreaking” reports of unsafe and unconstitutional conditions. She wrote that her request to access the facility was “denied this morning, raising even more questions about what they are trying to hide from public view.”
The Department of Homeland Security has shot down the claims of bad conditions and denied the hunger strike.
Kanitra asserted that Sherrill’s appearance “was a performative stunt to try to change the focus from their policies, which have created this chaos, to try to make some sort of sensational news story out of it.”
He taunted Democrats, saying, “The food service provider here at Delaney Hall is actually the same food service provider that services the $150,000 to $500,000 suites at Met Life Stadium.”
“It seems to be good enough for those guys, so I assume it’s good enough for our illegal invaders behind us,” he said, pointing back to the facility.
The lawmaker said he actually agrees that “every public official should be allowed to see what’s going on inside [the ICE facility] for themselves,” which he said, “will debunk these crazed claims that they have.”
“We already heard from Secretary Mullin himself and DHS saying that these were baseless allegations,” he continued. “I don’t know if they’re expecting the Ritz Carlton behind us, but these people are either here illegally or they were here as part of a privilege, with a visa or other procedure, and then they broke the law and are getting that revoked.”
“They shouldn’t be expecting five-star accommodations here in New Jersey,” he concluded.
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Meanwhile, a protester named Diana Tabor told Fox News Digital that she believes the conditions inside the ICE facility are “very unfair.” Tabor, who is Black, also noted that the protesters have been questioning the ethics of ICE agents who “look like us,” saying, “it feels like betrayal.”
She said that protesters, who have been camping outside the facility for several days, are with various advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations and are prepared to keep it up for weeks or months “until justice is served.”
Tabor said she was present on her own “on the behalf of constituents in Union County who have suffered due to the misfair treatment of Delaney Hall.”
“We’ve come here from different backgrounds, different organizations, we came here with different objectives, but ultimately, we formed a big family, and we have one goal, and we’ve all come together to make that goal,” said Tabor.
She agreed, “There is credibility in protecting the American people,” but emphasized, “I do believe that there are different ways to go about it, not kidnapping people, not putting them in overcrowded detention centers, I would say that we need to find a better way to mitigate that.”
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“I do think that there are obviously people that come here and do commit crimes, and there are murders and there are rapes and there are robberies and there are people being harmed with the loose borders, and that should be taken care of accordingly, but I think that if we start using our resources adequately and we start using it to actually go against criminals who are hurting people within these borders that we’d get a lot more done,” she said.
“So, I would say that we need to start focusing more on actual crime, and not just profiling people based on what they look like,” Tabor added. “I think that there is a happy medium between protecting human rights and also protecting the country.”
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DHS responded to the protests by publishing a statement stating that certified dietitians evaluate meals and that all detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries.
The agency added that detainees “also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers” and that “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sherrill and Booker for comment.
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