The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said it has transferred one of the leaders of an ongoing hunger strike at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, following demonstrations and a clash with protesters late Sunday and overnight in the early hours of Monday.

Members of Congress, including one who waited more than 12 hours to be let inside Delaney Hall, have now entered an ICE detention facility in Elizabeth where Martin Soto, a Peruvian immigrant detained at Delaney Hall since February, was being held.

New Jersey Rep. Rob Menendez said ICE officials have still not allowed him or other members of Congress to meet with Soto.

Protests erupted outside the Delaney Hall’s gates on Sunday afternoon and persisted into the early hours of Monday after word spread that ICE had attempted to move Soto out of Delaney Hall.

Striking detainees have demanded their release; the Department of Homeland Security has denied the hunger strike is happening at all.

Soto, who was detained while out buying diapers, has a court order preventing his transfer to any other facility, according to Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey. Sinha said the ACLU worked with Soto’s attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s office to stop ICE from moving Soto elsewhere.

An unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson gave no explanation about why the transfer to the Elizabeth Detention Center was conducted despite the existing court order.

Menendez initially denied entry

Menendez arrived at Delaney Hall around 8:15 p.m. Sunday to conduct an oversight visit and meet with Soto. When the sun rose Monday morning, Menendez still had not been allowed inside the facility. He spent much of his night pacing in a fenced-in parking lot, occasionally speaking with Soto’s wife, Gabriela, and other advocates through the fence.

Menendez said ICE officials and facility staff gave shifting reasons for why he was not allowed inside Delaney Hall, ranging from the late hour to “security concerns” over the protest at the gate.

Menendez said he offered several compromises, including meeting with Soto in an isolated room instead of in his housing unit, speaking with him over video call or to have staff send a video of Soto giving a message to his wife.

“ They said no to every single thing,” Menendez told Gothamist through the facility’s fence just before 2 a.m. “Now, the only option is staying here to make sure that at 4:00 in the morning, 5:00 in the morning, they don't try to move him.”

Menendez said he hoped to be let in around 8 a.m., which is when he’d been told an official from ICE’s New Jersey field office would join him. By around 9 a.m. Monday, that still had not happened, Menendez said in a text to Gothamist.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill joined Menendez at the scene Monday morning. The striking detainees had demanded that she visit Delaney Hall. Sherrill was denied entry to the facility according to Steve Sigmund, a spokesperson for the Governor.

Menendez was also joined early Monday at Delaney Hall by Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. Nellie Pou, Rep. LaMonica McIver and Rep. Analilia Mejia. After DHS announced Soto’s transfer, Menendez, McIver and Mejia visited the Elizabeth Detention Center in an attempt to meet with him.

Protesters confront ICE agents

Tensions spiked at 1 a.m. Monday morning, when ICE agents suddenly blocked the road outside Delaney Hall’s back gate to allow a caravan of their vehicles out of the facility. It was unclear what prompted the action or where the ICE vehicles were going.

Protesters quickly moved to confront the ICE agents, many with their phones out to document the scene. Some protesters attempted to place traffic barrels and roadblocks around ICE vehicles to stop them from moving as others tried to peer into the vehicles, looking for signs that Martin or other detainees may be in backseats.

Agents responded by clearing protesters from the road with force, shoving them onto sidewalks and against parked cars. At least one was pepper sprayed, and another was left with an apparent leg injury that required medical attention.

Lily Levitt, a New York City resident, said she was trying to film license plates when she was shoved twice by an ICE agent from behind.

“ I wasn't even blocking their vehicles because we did confirm that there was no detained person in there,” Levitt said. “I wasn't even blocking them.”

Attempted transfer

Gabriela Soto, Martin’s wife, was attempting to visit her husband during regular visitation hours Sunday morning when she saw Delaney Hall staff placing him in a van that was heading for the facility’s main gate, according to Sally Pillay, an advocate with the Eyes On ICE NJ coalition. Pillay had joined Gabriela for the visitation.

“ We ran out [to] the van. [Martin] was banging onto the van. I clearly saw him in the van. He was the only one in the vehicle that they were trying to take out,” Pillay said. “He was still wearing his uniform. He was shackled, but he was banging furiously. He could see [Gabriela.] She was running frantically in and around the van.”

Advocates and detainee families who were holding a vigil in support of the hunger strike outside the gate formed a human chain to block the van from leaving. Word of the standoff spread rapidly online. A crowd gathered along Doremus Avenue outside Delaney Hall quickly grew.

More than 100 people were at the scene at the demonstration’s peak, according to a Gothamist estimate of the crowd size.

Pillay said the barricade of people forced the van to retreat away from the gates and back towards the detention facility.

The crowd has remained outside Delaney Hall, though it diminished in size overnight.

Advocates said they are worried ICE will try to move Martin Soto again. Gabriela, a 28-year-old Kearney resident, said she has two children with Martin and is pregnant with a third. She was visibly distraught through the night as she tried to get confirmation that Martin was safe inside Delaney Hall, at times joined by her children at the scene.

Hunger strike ongoing

Hundreds of detainees inside Delaney Hall remained on hunger strike, according to Pillay and other advocates.

Clara Linhares, an 18-year-old from Hillside, said her mother and the women she is housed with inside the detention center are all participating in the strike.

A spokesperson for DHS previously said there is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall. ICE policy does not recognize an action as a hunger strike until it extends at least 72 hours, at which point guards are supposed to refer to medical staff for response.

The hunger strike was announced Friday morning by Martin and other detainees who called into a rally of detainee families organized by Gabriela Soto. She told Gothamist that Delaney Hall staff threatened her visitation rights because of her advocacy.

Menendez said the actions against the Sotos are a sign that ICE is increasingly concerned about the attention that protests inside and outside of the facility are bringing to Delaney Hall.

“ We know that they've identified her and him as people on the outside and the inside that are organizing people, and that's scary to them,” Menendez said.

“ This is definitely retaliation,” Pillay said. “There's no doubt because of how vocal she's been to support him to be released and support in solidarity for the hunger strike and what's going on.”