U.S. Sen. Andy Kim pepper-sprayed by federal agents during ICE oversight visit in Newark

On Memorial Day, May 25, 2026, U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said he was pepper-sprayed by federal agents outside Delaney Hall, a roughly 1,000-bed private ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. Kim said he had been inside the facility conducting an oversight visit to observe conditions — detainees were on a hunger strike protesting a denial of medical care, a lack of fresh food, and failed air conditioning — and emerged to find a standoff between demonstrators and ICE agents who had brought out an armored vehicle and were working to form a barricade. When Kim attempted to position himself between the agents and the crowd to de-escalate, ICE personnel pushed through and discharged pepper balls and pepper spray, striking the senator and others; his state director, Paul Stuart Aronsohn, was also affected. Kim said his eyes and throat were still burning hours later.

A sitting U.S. senator being subjected to federal-agency force while carrying out an in-person oversight visit at a federal detention facility is the core of the legislative-independence concern: members of Congress have a constitutional oversight role vis-à-vis the executive branch, and physical force directed at a legislator engaged in that lawful function is distinct from ordinary political opposition. The deployment of an armored vehicle as a barricade against civilian demonstrators, and the use of pepper balls, pepper spray, and batons against a crowd that included a senator, reflect the militarization-of-policing and excessive-force concerns, with the immigration-enforcement setting supplying the violence-in-immigration overlay. Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Rep. Rob Menendez had attended the demonstration earlier in the day but had departed before Kim was sprayed; Sherrill was separately denied access to the facility, according to the New Jersey Globe.

The Department of Homeland Security defended the action publicly, blaming "rioters" and asserting in a social-media post that officers had used "the minimum amount of force necessary." DHS later said that "no individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles" — a characterization that conflicts with Kim's account and with his press secretary's statement that pepper pellets were fired directly in front of where the senator stood. The incident is the second high-profile federal-force episode involving a sitting U.S. senator in under a year, following the June 2025 handcuffing and removal of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Delaney Hall has been the site of repeated confrontations since it opened in May 2025.