Chaos in Newark

Good morning!

Yesterday I noted that New Jersey was experiencing a chaos-free Memorial Day weekend. I spoke too soon.

Memorial Day itself devolved into a disorderly mess outside Delaney Hall, the migrant jail in Newark, where protestors and some lawmakers clashed with federal agents on the third day of large protests related to an apparent hunger strike by prisoners over conditions inside (the Trump administration disputes there is a hunger strike).

Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who protestors had called on to visit the jail, attempted to take a tour of the facility Monday but was rebuffed by federal agents, a move Sherrill said raised “serious questions about what they are trying to hide from public view.” Republicans dinged Sherrill for choosing Memorial Day for this, as Assemblyman Alex Sauickie (R) called it, “political stunt.”

Sen. Andy Kim (D) told NJ Advance Media he was trying to broker some kind of agreement between agents and protestors when agents began firing pepper balls at the protestors. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said agents acted to stop protestors from blocking the jail’s front gate.

“What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country,” Kim said. “It’s sad, it’s a sad day.”

A group of protestors remain in front of Delaney Hall this morning.

Trenton: Shifting focus to the Statehouse, Dana DiFilippo has a good one this morning on New Jersey’s soaring car insurance rates. Dana reviewed public records to show that most of the 77 insurers that write auto insurance in New Jersey have sought rate hikes every year since 2022, with companies seeking about 90 double-digit increases as high as 63%. An industry group blames state laws that push costs higher. Michael DeLong, a research and advocacy associate with the Consumer Federation of America, blames weak regulations and profit-hungry insurers.

Immigration: Tim Henderson at Stateline looks at voluntary departure agreements in immigration courts, which critics say are the Trump administration’s unfair push to pressure immigrants into leaving the U.S. even if they have a legal right to stay. Voluntary departures during the second Trump administration reached 89,494 cases as of May 1, according to a Stateline analysis of immigration court data processed by the Deportation Data Project, an academic research initiative. That’s more than seven times the number recorded in the last 16 months of the Biden administration (11,977).