NERMEEN SHAIKH: As protests continue outside the Newark, New Jersey, immigration jail known as Delaney Hall, New Jersey’s attorney general has sued the GEO Group, the private prison company operating the facility. The lawsuit asks the court to grant the state Health Department full access to the facility.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said in a statement, quote, “If the GEO Group — with a $1bn government contract — has nothing to hide and the conditions inside Delaney Hall are as safe and as sanitary as this private corporation and the Trump administration claim, then there is no legitimate reason why my health inspectors are being kept from full access throughout the building.” The New Jersey governor is still being denied access to visit the ICE jail.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as the city of Newark plans to expand its own lawsuit from last year against the for-profit GEO Group, asking a court to close Delaney Hall unless city officials are allowed to inspect the jail. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also lifted a nightly curfew around Delaney Hall on Tuesday as hundreds of immigrants jailed inside the ICE jail continue a hunger and labor strike.

Democracy Now!’s María Inés Taracena was outside Delaney Hall Tuesday and filed this report.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: We are standing outside the police barricade. It’s about half a mile away from Delaney Hall, the ICE jail here in Newark. We just spent the afternoon with mutual aid workers, speaking to them, speaking to some of the families of immigrants who are detained inside.

NATALIE: They’re saying families need an appointment. That has never been the case for those visiting. They’re just making it more and more difficult to go and visit those who are on labor and hunger strike. And those who have been on strike have been isolated, retaliated against, have had their tablets taken away from them, have had pepper sprays in their units, and then had the doors closed. We have firsthand accounts of this happening. These families are just here to visit. They’re still waiting here. And whenever we ask the cops, they are literally ignoring me.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: And are families — how do they feel? Have they told you if they are afraid now that they have to be escorted by police in order to even get to the entrance of Delaney Hall, which used to not be the case when this barrier was not in place?

NATALIE: People are scared. People are confused. I just heard a mom tell her daughter, “It’s OK. We’re OK. Look, I told you there’s nothing to be scared of,” because the daughter started shaking. She’s just here to see her dad. She thinks Delaney Hall is a hospital, because her family is too scared to tell her what it actually is, which is a concentration camp.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: That was Natalie, a mutual aid organizer with the group Eyes on ICE New Jersey. We spoke to a high school senior, who asked us not to use his real name. He was wearing his graduation sash.

HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: I’m here to visit my father and to — I mean, I just came from — well, from my signing day, and I wanted to come see my father.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: What would you like to tell your father on such a special day and such an incredible accomplishment?

HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: That I did it for him. All I ever thought about, all I had in mind was him. I really — I really wish he was here. I really — I really wish he was here to — well, to see me graduate and to be here with me. He’s been there maybe five months, maybe six. I lost count. I’ve been focused more on school. I’ve been trying to get there, for him. I’ve been trying to make my family proud.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: We also spoke to a young woman who was there with her siblings and cousin. They asked us to conceal their identities.

DAUGHTER: I was trying to meet my father. He recently got put in. And right now we can’t find anybody to help us with a lawyer, and no lawyer is trying to help his case. And so, it’s really hard to find someone to stay here, because he does not deserve to go to another country when he belongs in this one.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: If you were able to see your father, what would you like to tell him?

DAUGHTER: I would like to tell him that I love him and that one day I know we will be together as a whole family. And, you know, I don’t know, you know? You have a bond, you know, a father-daughter bond.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: Do you have any siblings?

DAUGHTER: Yes, that’s right here, actually, my brother and his little baby that he has, a newborn. It’s hard to see him because he has a newborn baby. He does not have a father. He only has a mother. His mother can’t take care of him just by herself. He needs two parents to support him and love him. Every child needs a parent to be there. And it’s — it’s so painful, because not having a father, knowing that your father’s in jail, and you can’t even communicate, and growing up without a father is just so hard.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: About an hour after we spoke to them, they were given permission to pass through the police barrier around Delaney Hall. Others, however, were escorted to Delaney Hall by local police, only to be denied entry to visit their loved ones. This is Kimberly Trinidad.

KIMBERLY TRINIDAD: My dad’s name is Vincente Trinidad Palillero , and my uncle is Agustin Trinidad Palillero. So, they were — they’re here since Wednesday the 20th. They happened to be detained in a Home Depot in Howell, New Jersey. My father has his work authorization. And since the 20th, they haven’t released him. A lawyer had to file a habeas corpus for both of them. He’s tried to show them his Social Security card, tried to show them his work authorization card. They said it didn’t matter, and they brought him in anyway. My uncle, on the other hand, he doesn’t have any legal status. He’s been here for over 30 years.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: Were you able to see them this afternoon?

KIMBERLY TRINIDAD: I was not, because they said that you have to be on a list to get in.

RACHEL MARANDETT: I’m Rachel Marandett. I am a detention attorney at the American Friends Service Committee, which is a nonprofit here in New Jersey. So, I was inside visiting. I saw five of my clients who are inside today. So, I have some clients who have various, like, medical conditions. And because the food in the dining hall is so inedible, they won’t eat anything other than out of the commissary. So, when their commissary shut down for five days, they’re not eating. So, I have — many of the clients I saw today hadn’t had anything to eat other than perhaps like a cracker in the past week or so. And then, there’s also, you know, temperature dysregulation. They said they often, like, will crank up the air conditioning so that everyone’s freezing, which often really feels like kind of direct retaliation.

MARÍA INÉS TARACENA: As mutual aid advocates began to pack up and the sun started setting, a man was released from Delaney Hall and reunited with his friend of 14 years. The man identified himself as Damian Castillo. He said he was detained for about three weeks and that he knew of the hunger strike happening inside in a different detention unit. He said the detainees were treated very poorly and were often put on lockdown.

This is María Inés Taracena, with Diego Ramos and Charina Nadura, reporting for Democracy Now! outside of Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you for that, María. To see all of our coverage on the hunger strike and protests at the Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark, go to democracynow.org.

Coming up, hundreds of far-right activists gathered in Portugal Saturday for an anti-immigrant summit focused on so-called remigration. Among those who attended, Trump’s former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Streets of Minneapolis,” Bruce Springsteen, performing on Democracy Now!’s 30th anniversary on Monday night, March 23rd, at the Riverside Church. To see the full performance and the event, go to democracynow.org.