Sen. Andy Kim had been pepper sprayed in Afghanistan and Iraq, but never in the United States – until Monday.

The South Jersey Democrat stood between protesters and federal immigration agents as they clashed outside of Delaney Hall, an immigration detention facility in Newark. He turned away from the agents as they sprayed pepper balls at his feet and he started to feel pain in his eyes and throat, nervous he would get shot in the face.

It gave Kim a similar feeling to the one he had on Jan. 6, 2021, when he received shelter-in-place notifications in Washington. The senator said he had received similar warnings abroad during his career in foreign policy but never in the U.S. He said he had not imagined he would experience either at home in America.

“What really breaks my heart so much is like just how normalized this violence has become,” he said in an interview.

Kim had gone to the 1,000-bed ICE detention center to conduct an oversight visit on Monday, amid protests that began Friday and have lasted through the week in response to complaints of inhumane conditions at the facility, including inedible food and lack of access to medical care. Federal authorities denied all claims of lack of care or improper treatment of detainees at the facility.

Members of Congress are legally allowed to enter ICE facilities when they wish — even though the agency has often turned them away under President Donald Trump. Kim said he was initially denied admittance to a scheduled appointment before being allowed to come inside. He saw the fracas developing as he stepped out of the facility.

Video taken at the scene shows Kim, in a dark business suit, with his hands raised in a “stop” motion, moving toward immigration agents who are positioned on the sides of an armored tactical vehicle. He then turns toward demonstrators who are advancing toward the officers, trying to keep the sides from colliding. He stands between the officers and demonstrators as the pop-pop-pop of pepper-ball fire can be heard, white clouds of gas soon rising from the pavement.

He said he tried to both encourage the ICE agents to leave and to get protesters to stop throwing water bottles.

“That’s the America that we’re in right now,” Kim said in the interview. “Americans fighting other Americans in American streets.”

He said that he used to work in counterterrorism to keep Americans safe from threats abroad, but now he’s worried about the country’s own government.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a Post on X that “no individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles” and blamed “rioters” for blocking officers who were trying to leave the facility.

“Our law enforcement followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property,” the department said in its post. “DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump called the Delaney Hall protesters “fake” and “paid for,” while new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen shrugged off reports of a hunger strike there.

“This isn’t Holiday Inn,” Mullin said.

The New Jersey Department of Health was only given access to part of the facility when the agency sought to conduct a health inspection Thursday, said Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who was denied entry to the facility on Monday. She said the facility “should be closed down” and that the lack of access “raises serious questions about what ICE is trying to hide from public view.”

Homeland Security branded her visit Monday as a “political stunt.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside the facility last year in a confrontation with ICE though his charges were dropped. U.S. Rep. Lamonica McIver still faces charges against her from that day that she’s been challenging.

What comes next?

So what comes next for Delaney Hall?

Kim really doesn’t know. He said that terrifies him.

“The same conditions that were there on Monday that, you know, led to the violence that I was thrown into, it still exists today … I am terrified about the idea that we will see some type of further escalation of violence here,” he said Wednesday.

Kim said there are detainees who have been waiting months with no movement on their cases and that he saw evidence of an immigration judge seeing 74 cases in one day, leaving just minutes for each hearing.

He said he met a pregnant woman who asked if she’s going to have to give birth in the center because she doesn’t know when she’s supposed to be released. A man with stage three lung cancer who was told by the doctor he only has a few months to live wants to go to his home country to be with his family but isn’t permitted to go, Kim said.

“This can all change, and it’s achievable, and that’s what I’m trying to shine a light on ... in the same way that people demanded changes after the killing and murder of Alex Pretti and Renee Good,” he said.

Kim hopes the attention on Delaney Hall can have ripple effects in New Jersey similar to how ICE backed out of Minnesota after national outrage, after Good and Pretti were killed by federal agents.

The senator said he also wants to highlight what he called a “corruption revolving door” that results in a lack of accountability for the facility, which is run by the GEO Group Inc., a private-prison company which last year received a 15-year, $1-billion federal contract for its services at Delaney. Former “border czar” Tom Holman previously consulted for the Geo Group, and the acting director of ICE also previously worked for the company.

Kim said he’s working with colleagues to present claims and concerns about the facility to the Department of Homeland Security.

In Washington, Kim said he will try to persuade Republicans to vote against a reconciliation bill next week that will send more money to ICE, and push for amendments addressing conditions and shutting down facilities like Delaney Hall.

The conflict in Newark comes as the Trump administration confines record numbers of immigration detainees while it pursues a mass-deportation agenda. The nationwide total reached 70,766 in January before dropping to 60,311 in April. That decline may be at least partly due to faster deportations.

More than 12,000 people were placed in detention in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware in the nine months after Trump took office in January 2025. That’s nearly three times the number of detentions during the last nine months of former President Joe Biden’s administration, according to an Inquirer analysis of ICE data.

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