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From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

- Hello, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

We're bringing you a special NJ Spotlight News edition of Reporters Roundtable, where Joanna Gagis has a roundup of the top political stories of the week with the help of a panel of local journalists.

Reporters Roundtable starts right now.

Delaney Hall is now at the center of the national immigration policy debate.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

This is Reporters Roundtable.

We've got a panel of journalists here with us to break down all that's happened in the last week of New Jersey news, and oh boy, is there a lot.

Let's meet our panelists.

First up, we have Jelani Gibson, politics reporter with NJ Advanced Media.

We have Matt Friedman, reporter with Politico and author of the New Jersey Playbook, and our own Ben Hulac, Washington, D.C.

correspondent for NJ Spotlight News.

While protests turned into clashes this week outside and inside of New York's Delaney Hall, a facility that's being used as an immigration detention center run by the private company, Geo Group.

Now, over the course of the week, protesters, including U.S.

Senator Andy Kim, were pepper sprayed, arrested, and a clash with ICE officers ended with a man getting pushed in front of a tractor trailer and his leg was run over.

Plus, we've heard reports of detainees being beaten and pepper sprayed inside the facility.

Jelani, you've been there on the scene all week.

Can you just describe some of what you've seen there?

Yeah, so I mean, this week you've seen a pepper sprayed senator, you've seen reports of retaliation for the hunger strike, reports of transfers.

It's been a pretty consistently chaotic situation with escalating states, so to speak.

We are hearing reports right now that the state police are on site.

We haven't seen state police presence up until this point.

What are you hearing?

Can you confirm who gave the order for them to be there?

I was there around midnight and it would appear that, you know, as basically midnight hit, there were some state troopers and Newark PD that was present on site and they were not exactly in front of Delaney Hall, but they were basically roughly about a half of a mile away.

And they were turning away protesters that were trying to park in front of the facility and basically telling them that they had to walk.

We are, we should make it clear.

This is a very busy stretch of road where there are tractor trailers moving constantly in both directions.

It's a shipping route and it's right next to the port.

And so the fact that they are there now from what we're hearing on the ground, controlling the flow of cars, but not the flow of tractor trailers is the first sign we've seen of any type of behavior like that in about a week.

Matt, starting last weekend, Congressman Rob Menendez, joined by U.S.

Senator Andy Kim and Gov.

Sherrill, tried to gain access to the facility.

They wanted to inspect the facility.

They were hearing calls from detainees inside talking about conditions inside.

Can you just kind of break down who actually has the authority to make those types of oversight visits and who doesn't?

Yeah, so Andy Kim does, Rob Menendez does, any member of Congress does.

The state, you know, the governor does not, under the law, have automatic access for inspections, only members of Congress.

It's sort of a similar situation to what we saw last year, I think it was May too, when Raz Baraka couldn't get in, but the members of Congress could, and they wanted to get him in, and you know, that caused the whole thing and ultimately led to his arrest and the quick dismissal of the charges.

So by law, the members of Congress are, have the right to access a facility and the governor and state officials don't, as far as I know.

Although from what we heard in, I know Briana Vannozzi spoke with Congressman Menendez earlier this week and he said he was only, he's even been denied access at some points, been allowed.

Just quickly, the Department of Health also attempted to inspect the facility yesterday.

Again, this is New Jersey Department of Health.

Even though it's a contract with the federal government, Matt, does the Department of Health have any authority to inspect if there are reports of unsanitary conditions inside?

I'm kind of flying blind on that when I haven't reviewed the statute, so I'm not really comfortable answering that question.

Sorry.

That's okay.

And the governor's office has said that they were denied access.

They plan on issuing a report.

They were allowed a partial visit, I should say.

So they're going to issue a report next week in terms of what they did see in just that partial visit, but they were denied a full visit.

Ben, this all started because of a hunger strike inside, started by a detainee there named Martin Soto.

What are the concerns that the detainees are raising in terms of the conditions inside?

Essentially, they're being tortured, that they're being physically and psychologically beaten and ground down.

There are reports that, I talked to one advocate who was there all of this weekend who told me that worms have been served in food for the detainees.

I think it's important to remember this is one private detention facility that is part of a nationwide apparatus that is part of Donald Trump's mass deportation effort.

He campaigned on this in '24 and is governing this way still.

The oversight element, I think, is really important here.

As Matt pointed out, members of Congress do have the authority to walk up and inspect sites.

The Trump administration has tried to curtail that power through DHS policy, Department of Homeland Security policy.

But this actually goes back to the first Trump presidency, when Democrats folded some language into an appropriations bill that became law that would allow them to conduct these unannounced visits.

And the whole point is, if you know an inspection is coming, you're going to clean up.

So members want the power, as they have today, to conduct these unannounced visits to see what's really going on inside, which, as I've said, folks inside have told their loved ones, told members, told reporters that they're just going through physical hell.

Yeah.

We heard one report of a boy who was inside having his face beaten yesterday.

We're hearing reports that detainees were on the phone with someone while you could hear them yelling, "Help!

Help!"

while they were being beaten and pepper sprayed.

Jelani, you wrote a story recently about a New York congressman who was allowed to enter the facility and is now trying to change law to impact gubernatorial oversight.

What can you tell us?

Well, basically, there's been a bill that's been introduced, and it would essentially give the governor oversight over the facility in the same way that congressional members have.

I'm not really sure how far along that bill is or how far along that suggestion is, but that's pretty much where things stand right now.

The Trump administration has said that these are all fabricated claims.

They say that the facility is in great shape.

I want to play you a clip that we heard from President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen earlier this week.

Let's take a listen.

These aren't protesters.

These people are fake.

They're all paid for.

And I will tell you, Tom Holman and that whole group and now Mark Wayne is so incredible.

Mark, do you want to just respond to that?

We run the finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type.

But we have some horrible killers.

We have killers.

We have guys that have murdered numerous people in there.

And these are the people they're trying to protect.

They say that they're that it's because they're on a hunger strike when there was only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat because they want their ethnic group or their ethnic right food.

Well, they go back to the country and get whatever food they want.

The fact is we're giving them the calories they want.

This isn't holiday in.

We're giving sanitation.

But for the Democrats and the governor, like Governor Sherrill and Senator Kim and Senator Booker to go out and do something like this of all the days is very frustrating.

And when he says of all the days, he's talking about them being there on Memorial Day, something that Republicans have said have called shameful, disgraceful.

Ben, Mark Wayne Mullen also said that the federal government should stop international flights from coming into Newark because they say protesters are blocking their vehicles from entering and exiting the facility.

Just when it comes to international flights, do they have the authority to reroute flights away from Newark Airport?

In theory, yes.

Very briefly, there's some history that comes to mind after 9/11.

The Department of, actually it would likely be a different department.

After 9/11, the Transportation Secretary, the Federal Transportation Secretary, grounded flights nationwide.

DOT controls the airspace, not DHS.

But that's just a totally impractical suggestion from Mullin that will not happen.

The other key thing I think to keep in mind is Congress is out right now on a break.

When it returns, members, Republicans control both chambers, the Senate and House members will almost certainly by the end of June have passed a new $70 billion plus funding bill specifically for DHS.

So this money will go to ICE, it will go to Customs and Border Patrol, and that money will then in turn flow to sites like Delaney Hall and Elizabeth's Detention Center, the two main detention sites in New Jersey, where conditions, as we've been discussing, are pretty deplorable from how things sound.

Yeah, I'm glad you raised that point, because we have seen, though, Republican pushback to that spending plan because there is a proposal from the president, this $1.8 billion, right, that would be a compensation fund for those who say they were targeted by the DOJ in the January 6th arrests.

Senator Mitch McConnell says, quote, "So the nation's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops."

He says, "It's utterly stupid, morally wrong, take your pick."

You think, though, Ben, that this will move forward easily in spite of some of this pushback?

- That section is almost certainly dead on arrival.

That is actually in part why the Senate and the House adjourned early, unexpectedly, last week and left town.

There are no Republican votes and certainly no Democratic votes for that fund for January 6th, domestic terrorists.

The funding though that will pass almost certainly is that DHS funding that will be set aside in a different mechanism and likely become law.

Jelani, just quickly, we talked about the fact that there is now a state police presence for the first time.

We have the Immigrant Trust Act, which does prohibit and preclude state government from cooperating with the federal government when it comes to ICE operations.

Any more clarity in terms of who controls that road?

Because Mark Wayne Mullen said that if they could, they would just come in and they would send their people to control traffic on that road.

But he says they don't have that authority.

There's a lot of gray here in terms of who controls it, who can act, who can't.

What can you tell us?

Well, even when it comes to the protest itself, very rarely have the agents, the federal agents, really moved that far beyond the grass, so to speak.

Sometimes out into the street, but it's been made very clear that they don't necessarily have control of that road and that that road is primarily under the jurisdiction right now of Newark PD and the state police.

Yeah.

Okay, a whole lot more.

I'm sure we could talk about Delaney Hall.

I'm sure we're going to be talking about it for a lot longer.

It doesn't seem like it's settling down at all.

But there is some other news that we should be talking about that happened in New Jersey this week.

Matt, let's start with this investigation into FIFA launched by New Jersey and New York.

What can you tell us about that?

So there were a lot of complaints early on by ticket buyers who bought tickets that they thought were the best in the best zone.

And then FIFA came out a month or so later and said, OK, now there's a better zone within the zone which you bought tickets, and those prices are even higher.

So that seems to be the main crux of the complaints that they're investigating.

They've issued subpoenas, they said.

I think it's really-it says more about messaging than anything when prosecutors announce investigations.

Typically, that's not how it's done.

I'm not saying this is a criminal investigation, but still, it's, you know, so nobody loves FIFA.

Even the soccer fans don't love FIFA.

So it's kind of an easy target, but it's a legitimate, you know, complaint.

And especially, but it's also interesting talking about, you know, standing up for consumers' ticket prices, for spectators' ticket prices when we're charging them 100 bucks a pop or 98 dollars a pop to get to the stadium.

Yeah, I mean that just goes to, I think, also the, what's clearly a lack of a good relationship between the state and FIFA, right?

There's a lot of finger pointing as to who should be bearing the cost of those ticket prices.

It's also an interesting dynamic, you know, we're about to host the games and we're about to investigate the entity that runs them.

Is this, do you see the potential for this ending in a lawsuit?

Do you see it going there?

Obviously, you know, we're speculating.

I could see it potentially going there, though it's probably unlikely before the games begin in two weeks.

So yeah, maybe, but probably not ahead of the games.

And I also think it's interesting, we're talking about, you know, maybe the Trump administration really messing up the flow of air traffic.

And it would be by like, it wouldn't be the Department of Transportation, but the Department of Homeland Security, taking away customs officials, Border Patrol officials from the airports, and saying, well, we can't process international flights, that would cause a lot of chaos.

It's hard to imagine them actually wanting to do that, especially right ahead of the World Cup, though, could I see a very limited case where they do it in New Jersey to try to just gauge what kind of chaos it would cause across the entire system.

I mean, that's another thing to keep an eye out for.

That's such a great point.

This is a time when all systems need to be running smoothly, no disruption to what we depend on in such a huge, heavily trafficked area.

Jelani, I want to switch gears.

Other big news of the week, the governor outlined a new plan that she would like to see instituted in terms of how the state regulates data centers, AI data centers that want to come into the state.

She announced this four pillar plan, big picture.

What can you tell us about what she'd like to see them bring to the table?

Well, what she would like to see them bring to the table is surely not going to be something that the data centers themselves are more than likely enthusiastic about.

She's basically saying she wants to see a lot of the impact that they're going to have on the community, that she wants to see them pay for more of their electricity usage and things like that.

The business industry has already pushed back against a lot of it, calling some of the regulations cumbersome.

So it's more than likely going to be a fight.

Yeah, she wants to see them pay for their own energy, as you said, but also upgrades to the grid because of the load.

I can just talk through a couple of things.

She wants to see transparency around how much water and energy usage they will actually be using.

She says there's not enough transparency there.

But, Jelani, this is not even in legislative form yet.

There's a long way to go.

Do you see this passing this New Jersey legislature easily?

Well, it's certainly going to be a high topic of debate for both Republicans and Democrats, because when you go into these local town halls, both Republican municipalities and Democratic municipalities, it seems to be something of a bipartisan concern for residents about what it's going to do for their electricity bill and what the effects are going to be when it comes to the environment.

And so more than likely, you will be encountering legislators on both sides of the aisle that are receiving pressure from their local constituents.

Yeah.

Another requirement is she wants to make sure that they use union labor and pay a prevailing wage if and when they do build.

And she also wants them to contribute to the neighborhoods that they're coming into.

We've been hearing a whole lot of complaints, though, from folks who live in areas where data centers already exist, saying that there's constant noise, there's constant light, they have headaches.

I would think though, Jelani, staying on this, that there's going to be pressure from community, from residents on legislators from both sides, because folks seem to be pretty unhappy about this.

Yeah, correct.

I mean, as I've said before, those same constituents that are at the local town hall meetings are also hitting up their legislators.

And in many instances, when you have these local municipal town hall meetings, some of the state legislators are showing up to those local municipal meetings when it takes place in their district.

And so the pressure isn't just happening on a local level.

It is also happening on a state level to the point where you have legislators showing up at municipal meetings.

So, the bipartisan pressure is definitely going to come to term.

Ben, you were just with our friends over at NewsHour talking about where in the world is Tom Kane Jr.?

Any insight, any updates?

What can you tell us?

Not a lot, unfortunately, for viewers.

We don't know where the congressman is.

He last voted in this building.

I'm right now in the House Press Gallery.

He last voted here on the House floor March 5th.

He has missed committee votes.

And through this whole course, his office and his political allies have said this is a personal health matter.

He will be back in due time.

We do not know, we have not known throughout this whole process what due time is, what what him returning to work soon will look like.

We don't know what the man has suffered in these past two months.

Has he come down with a physical condition, a psychological element?

We really have very little insight.

And I do think it speaks to a broader issue.

He's relatively young for Congress.

He's 57.

But this is an issue when there is an open vacancy, a sidelined member, I should say, and no vacancy, it creates a gap in government.

And yes, staff, House staff, as Kean staff have, they can field constituent issues and questions like Social Security benefits or VA benefits.

But there is still some void of governance there.

Democrats are trying to pounce on that void of governance, and they are really looking to flip that district.

There's a lot of debate, though, as to how, whether they go with the more progressive candidate or the more moderate candidate.

Matt, we have primary election day on Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, June 2nd.

What can you tell us about how District 7 is shaping up right now?

Who's in the lead?

Who looks like the likely winner there?

All indications by fundraising by the very limited amount of internal polls, which you should take with 10 pounds of salt, are that Rebecca Bennett, which would be considered the more moderate of the four candidates in that district, and maybe the most potential crossover appeal, is in the lead there in this competitive district.

That could change, but I haven't seen anything that suggested any sort of shift in the dynamics of that race, really, since the beginning, it seems to be her.

And I think her profile as kind of the Mikey Jr.

candidate, you know, Navy helicopter pilot, sort of moderate or more moderate.

She didn't straight up say abolish ICE, you know, or whatever.

I think it's telling that you have what's clearly some Republican outside interference attempting to ding her as not liberal enough, clearly wanting to elevate one of the more progressive, perhaps outright progressive candidates in the primary.

And Kane's absence I think the interesting thing about that is, you know, Kane's always been kind of a bit distant from one on one interactions.

No in person town halls ever.

And Democrats have struggled to kind of break through with that message before.

They've tried really hard and activists it's really frustrated them for years.

But what this has done is really kind of highlighted that aspect of him.

And I think it it threatens to make it a little more salient as a campaign issue, especially in a particularly difficult time for what's looking to be so far a difficult midterm for Republicans.

Two other pretty contested district races that will be decided on Tuesday.

We have District 12 where Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman is retiring.

Can you tell us who's in the lead there in this race of 12 people to take over the 12th district?

Yeah, it's such a crowded, incredibly crowded primary.

I think there might even be one has dropped out but it's still on the ballot.

So there might even be something like 13 candidates on the ballot.

13 on the ballot, 12 still in the race.

Yeah.

Yeah, 12 still in the race.

Incredible number of candidates.

I would say all indications are the leader, Dr.

Adam Hamawi, who is a plastic surgeon.

A lot of controversial things in his distant past, but has also like he's a really interesting candidate in that like, if you look at him as a young man, he had some really associations that are not that are very controversial within good reason.

But he also has a record of, you know, being a surgeon in the army for many years in a 9/11 first responders.

So you have really two sides of this.

I mean, he saved the US Senator's life when she was a soldier in the Army.

But he does appear to be leading.

And I think it's amazing how much like Israel has dominated the conversation in this primary.

I think that's part of this.

I'm going to jump in here.

Can you in 30 seconds, give us a quick wrap up on District 2 where they're hoping Democrats are hoping to take on Congressman Jeff Vandreu.

Yeah, you have four candidates there.

You have a guy named Bailey Winder who just moved there and is trying to capitalize on the data center stuff.

You have Tim Alexander, who's run twice before, once as the nominee.

It's been unsuccessful and is hard up on resources.

You have Seth Mullick, who's a local politician from Cape May County.

A lot of Democrats feel he's best positioned in a general election, but doesn't necessarily have the resources to win the primary.

And you have Terry Reese, who's a grassroots, you know, progressive running in that race.

Two names, two words, one name, who's in the lead?

I really can't tell on that one.

I, that one, you know, no idea.

We've got to leave it there.

Jelani, Matt, Ben, thank you so much for being with us today.

You can follow me on Instagram @JoannaGagisNJ and go ahead and scan that QR code right there on your screen to see more episodes of Roundtable.

On behalf of all the crew working behind the scenes to put this show together, I'm Joanna Gagis.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Have a great weekend.

That's going to do it for us.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For the entire NJ Spotlight News team, thanks for being with us.

Have a great weekend.

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