Four detainees broke through a wall and managed to escape from a federal immigration detention center in Newark, N.J., amid reports of disorder breaking out there, according to Senator Andy Kim and the Department of Homeland Security.
Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, spoke Friday outside the Delaney Hall detention center.
He said he was told detainees managed to break through an interior wall that led to an exterior one and from there were able to escape to a parking lot.
More “law enforcement partners’’ have been brought in to find the detainees missing from Delaney Hall, according to an emailed statement attributed to a senior DHS official. The statement also didn’t specify which law enforcement agencies are involved, and authorities haven’t released the names of the escapees.
Homeland Security identified the four escapees as two Honduran and two Colombian nationals and said they had been arrested on various charges.
Newark’s mayor cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened a 1,000-bed facility there this year under a 15-year, $1 billion contract as part of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Photos and video from outside the facility Thursday showed protesters pushing against the gates amid word that detainees inside were upset about delayed meals.
associated press