A South Jersey woman is facing likely surgery after an ICE vehicle rolled over her boot during a weekly prayer vigil outside Delaney Hall, fracturing her left foot in a confrontation caught on cell phone video. The marked SUV, which had “Defend the Homeland” written across its hood, struck the woman as activists gathered in a driveway typically used for visitor and employee parking at the Newark detention facility on Monday evening.
Casey Ward, an activist who witnessed the incident, told Jersey Vindicator that the ICE vehicle accelerated, a woman screamed, and her friend ended up on the ground. Ward said the group had moved into the middle of the driveway around 8:45pm, during the final five minutes of the vigil, and maintained that the driveway was not actively used by vehicles at that time of day. Cell phone video reviewed by PIX11 shows an ICE agent driving through the crowd and hitting the woman.
Ward acknowledged that the woman did not move out of the way of the oncoming vehicle but insisted that her failure to move did not justify being struck by a car. Ward also said the activists were not blocking traffic and believed ICE deliberately tried to interfere with the vigil, according to the same PIX11 report. The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to PIX11's request for comment on the incident.
Activists Push for State Investigation
Ward has filed a complaint through New Jersey's misconduct-reporting portal, launched by the state's Attorney General's office, calling on the state Attorney General's office to investigate the incident, per PIX11's reporting. The New Jersey Attorney General's office has not responded to PIX11's request for comment. Governor Mikie Sherrill established the portal under Executive Order No. 12 on February 11, allowing residents to upload photos and videos documenting ICE interactions to support state legal strategy and civil rights enforcement, according to the New Jersey Department of Human Services. The order also restricted ICE from using non-public state property without a judicial warrant.
The portal saw heavy use almost immediately: within its first month, it received roughly 35 substantive complaints and media files from residents documenting alleged ICE misconduct, per NJ Patch. Whether the August 31 vehicle strike will result in charges against the driver remains an open question, especially given how the state's last comparable case played out.
A Pattern of Vehicle Strikes at the Facility
This is the second documented instance of a vehicle striking a demonstrator outside Delaney Hall this summer. In June, facility employee Thomas K. Brown struck Minnesota demonstrator Alex James with his car, and Newark Police charged Brown with assault by auto and reckless driving, according to NJ Spotlight News. That earlier case shows that criminal charges against a driver at Delaney Hall are possible, though it remains unclear whether the same outcome will follow this time, given that the driver in the August 31 incident was operating a federal ICE vehicle rather than a private employee's car.
Delaney Hall has become a near-constant flashpoint since it reopened in 2025. The 1,000-to-1,196-bed facility, operated by Florida-based GEO Group under a 15-year, $1 billion contract with ICE, is an immigration detention facility in the Northeast, as Hoodline reported when ICE reopened the Newark center. Its average daily population was also analyzed in federal data reviewed by TRAC. According to a Feb. 26, 2025 ICE contract, Delaney Hall is located at 451 Doremus Ave. and the agreement includes a section labeled “Additional Capacity For Detention Services.”
Deaths and Health Inspections Fuel Tension
The rising scrutiny around Delaney Hall has coincided with mounting allegations of neglect inside. At least three detainees have died following medical emergencies at the facility, including two deaths in the preceding six weeks, per Scripps News. Elected officials have called for the facility's closure.
New Jersey officials, including the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, have scrutinized conditions at Delaney Hall. A May 21, 2025 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office examined which DHS entities conduct immigration-detention inspections, how those inspections work and their results. According to a DHS Office of Inspector General report issued Feb. 1, 2023, the agency examined ICE and CBP deaths in custody during fiscal year 2021.
The facility has also drawn high-profile political conflict. That conflict has added to the friction surrounding Delaney Hall since it began operating at a much larger scale; see the related report.
