Manhunt in New Jersey: Authorities Search for Four Escaped ICE Detainees and Offer a Bounty of $10,000 Each

U.S. authorities announced today that they are searching for four individuals who escaped from an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey during a protest against ICE that turned violent on Thursday night, and are offering 10,000 per men.

According to Democratic Senator Andy Kim and other officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the escapees managed to break through a wall at Delaney Hall Detention Center, that led outside and allowed them to flee into a parking lot.

At the time, a protest was taking place outside the detention center. Activists formed a human chain and used their vehicles when the escape occurred. So far, there is no information on the whereabouts of the escapees, who hailed from Honduras and Colombia.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying that "law enforcement from several friendly government agencies" is hunting for the escapees, whose names have not been released officially, although the New York Post has released their alleged names and mugshots.

According to the report, the men are Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Joel Enrique Sandoval-López, both of Honduras, and Joan Sebastián Castañeda-Lozada and Andrés Pineda-Mogollón, both of Colombia.

Moments of Great Confusion

Attorney Mustafa Cetin, who represents a client at Delaney Hall Detention, told the Associated Press that the violence began in the afternoon when meals for the detainees arrived several hours late.

"Apparently the guards lost control of them," Cetin said. "And they started to, you know, create a disturbance. They came back up to the third floor, where my client is. Basically, they blocked off cameras and security cameras, and some of them made their way into a housing unit with a very thin, shallow wall, and they knocked it out."

According to him, most of the unrest stemmed from delayed meals and a "weird" smell in the water.

Senator Andy Kim and Representative Rob Menendez visited the center this morning and "confirmed the reports of food shortages, bad water and substandard conditions," said the NJ Alliance for Immigrants.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who's been critical of Trump's immigration crackdown, early Friday called for an end to this "chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked."
"We are concerned about reports of what has transpired at Delaney Hall this evening, ranging from withholding food and poor treatment to uprising and escaped detainees," he said.

In a statement Friday, the American Friends Service Committee said people inside the facility reported getting small portions of food, with breakfast at 6 a.m., dinner at 10 p.m. and no lunch.