Why Mikie Sherrill Embraced the Obviously Bogus Newark ICE Protests

By The New York Post Editorial Board

Antifa and the local professional-protest crew opened the spring rioting season last weekend at the Delaney Park ICE detention facility in Newark — and New Jersey’s Democratic establishment embraced the radicals, once again putting the lie to Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s pretenses of being a moderate.

The pretext for the Memorial Day weekend demonstrations, with their repeated efforts to block entry and exit to the facility and otherwise interfere with federal law enforcement, was a supposed “hunger strike” by detainees allegedly suffering inhumane conditions.

Hmm: Here are the horrors Sen. Andy Kim testifies to seeing on the inside:

A high school student set to miss graduation.

A carton of milk that soured before its “Sell By” date.

An illegal-immigrant detainee married to an American citizen.

A busy court docket.

Not much, as atrocities go.

All this follows like clockwork the similar rioting outside the same facility a year ago, with much the same cast of characters, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. Rob Menendez — except that Sherrill and Kim’s presence shows that the need to honor the cause is moving higher up the Democratic hierarchy.

Worse, this isn’t really about any ICE abuses, or even ICE: It’s just part of the Democratic left’s rolling machinery of resistance.

Why else are so many of the protesters wearing kaffiyehs?

The Palestinian-solidarity tea-towels make some sense at anti-Israel demonstrations, but their prevalence at an anti-ICE action is a giveaway that these rent-a-mobs are “protesting” purely to “protest.”

They live to “put their bodies on the line” in service to the Unicause, knowing full well that at worst they will huff some tear gas or get pepper-sprayed, maybe spend a night in jail.

Even violent protesters rarely face any charges, and when they do, instantly have a dozen “movement” lawyers ready to blitz the courts with motions and lawsuits, gratis.

But such is the radicals’ hold on the Democratic “mainstream” that Sherrill felt obliged to show up for the “cause.”

The circus is now running the Democratic Party.

Why Mikie Sherrill embraced the obviously bogus Newark ICE protests https://t.co/pvarGn2k1H pic.twitter.com/hDx3yXJxbj

— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) May 28, 2026