The supposedly gut-wrenching hunger strike at the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey was a flat-out fraud — and DHS just dropped the receipts to prove it. While illegal immigrants claimed they were wasting away in protest, commissary sales at the facility nearly tripled.
They called it a hunger strike. The vending machine called it a sales event.
DHS Deputy Press Secretary Lauren Bis torched the narrative on social media, writing that "the hunger strike HOAX was actually just Delaney Hall detainees trading nutritious meals for junk food." And the numbers don't lie. According to DHS data reported by American Wire News, weekly commissary purchases jumped from $11,498 on March 26 to $30,000 by June 1 — all while the facility's population actually dropped 14%, from 724 detainees to 621.
Let that sink in. Fewer people. Triple the snack budget. Some hunger strike.
The detainees' shopping list reads like a gas station run at 2 a.m.: Oatmeal Creme Pies, Hot Pickles, Cajun Shrimp Ramen, Honey Buns, and Hot Cheetos. Meanwhile, the facility's actual menu includes pancakes, fajitas, macaroni and cheese, and deli meats. These guys weren't starving. They were upgrading.
But that didn't stop Democrats from sprinting to the cameras to wail about "inhumane conditions." New York Representative Jerry Nadler visited Delaney Hall and breathlessly reported that "food is very sparse" and that detainees claimed "very often, they eat maggots in the food." Maggots. In the fajitas. Sure thing, Jerry.
New Jersey Representatives Herb Conaway and Donald Norcross also made the pilgrimage to wring their hands on behalf of people who are in this country illegally and apparently have a serious Honey Bun habit.
Reality, however, has a way of ruining a good sob story. New Jersey health inspectors conducted an inspection of Delaney Hall on May 28 and found zero violations. Not one. The food is fine. The facility is clean. The "hunger strike" was theater.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin wasn't having any of it. He pointed out that the detainees at Delaney Hall include "rapists, child predators, murderers, drug dealers" and that the so-called hunger strike involved "only a handful" of people at best. When asked about their complaints, Mullin delivered the line of the week: "Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want."
Perfect.
"The fact is, we're giving them the calories they want," Mullin added. And apparently a whole lot of Hot Cheetos on top of it.
This is what manufactured outrage looks like. The media ran wall-to-wall coverage of a "hunger strike" that was really just illegal immigrants swapping cafeteria trays for commissary junk food — and Democrats showed up to validate the con. The receipts are in. The inspectors found nothing wrong. The detainees were munching Oatmeal Creme Pies.
The only thing starving at Delaney Hall was the truth.