New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim spent his Memorial Day trying to negotiate with an anti-ICE mob outside a Newark detention facility… and got pepper-sprayed for his trouble.
Kim arrived Monday at Delaney Hall, an illegal immigrant detention center in Newark, alongside Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill and other members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation.
Leftist protesters had been blocking the facility’s entrances for days, responding to claims of a detainee hunger strike inside. About 125 demonstrators formed human chains and makeshift barricades, at times blocking ICE vehicles from exiting the property.
Video circulating on social media showed Kim trying to negotiate with the mob and said he would personally check on the detainees inside. The crowd immediately turned on him, shouting “We don’t believe you!”
🚨 JUST NOW: Sen. Andy Kim (D) just SHOWED UP and BEGGED his fellow leftists to stop obstructing ICE vehicles at the NJ federal building
He's promising he'll check on the detainees, someone yelled, "we don't believe you!" 🤣
LEFT EATING THEIR OWN!pic.twitter.com/wOnbhHoe19
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 25, 2026
Agents could not wait. They were forced to push back the crowd, then deployed pepper balls and spray, and made several arrests as they sought to clear the entrance.
“I tried to find a way through this — to be able to have this happen non-violently,” Kim told NJ.com afterward. “I ran up and put myself between the ICE officers and the crowd, and that’s when they started to shoot at us with the pepper balls — as well as using the pepper spray — and were tackling people.”
Video showed Kim having water poured into his eyes as medics treated him on the scene. “It’s just burning,” the senator complained.
Take a look —
Sen. Andy Kim gets his eyes washed out by “medics” after getting between clashing federal agents and far left agitators blocking the entrance to Delaney Hall immigration detention center in NJ pic.twitter.com/kgwySgWs6F
— Elaad Eliahu (@elaadeliahu) May 25, 2026
Kim said Trump, not the liberal mob, was to blame.
“What I witnessed and experienced today was shameful,” he later wrote. “Instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions, ICE sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire. Civilians were tackled and restrained, and agents fired pepper balls and spray into the crowd.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the event “a political stunt on Memorial Day.”
This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks.
There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions.
@SenBooker, @SenatorAndyKim, @RepMenendez, @RepNellie, @FrankPallone, @GovSherrillNJ and dozens… https://t.co/Lg3c3B2Q9A— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) May 25, 2026