A Peruvian immigrant who was a key member of a protest movement inside a troubled migrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, has been freed after eight months in custody.
Martin Soto, who is undocumented, was arrested by immigration officials in February and held at Delaney Hall. He was transferred in May to another detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, at the onset of protests outside Delaney that turned violent at times. Soto said that he had participated in a hunger strike at Delaney Hall.
On Tuesday, Judge Jamel K. Semper of U.S. District Court in New Jersey ruled that Soto’s detention was illegal and ordered that the federal government release him. In making his decision, Semper cited arguments by Soto’s lawyer, who said that the detention was harming her client’s mental health.
A statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not say why Soto had been detained but said that he had been charged with assault in Kearny, New Jersey; his lawyer said that the charge was dismissed.
The ICE statement described Soto’s wife, Gabriela Soto, as “an anti-ICE agitator who helped lead the protests that turned violent outside the Delaney Hall facility.” The statement accused Martin Soto of “inciting unrest and causing property damage inside Delaney Hall.” They did not say whether he was punished for organizing protests.
“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in our country,” the statement said.
Outside the Elizabeth detention center late Tuesday, Gabriela Soto ran to her husband and sobbed in his arms. The couple’s young daughter chased after her parents, and with each hurried step, the child’s long, glossy hair bounced and her pink light-up sneakers sparkled. Martin Soto thanked supporters who had gathered to celebrate his release.
“We will share our story and everything that has happened to us,” a defiant Martin Soto said in Spanish. “We have to fight until this bad government is out.”
Soto’s lawyer, Selenia Destefani, said that for four months, her client had been held in solitary confinement, where he became suicidal. The ICE statement did not say why he had been placed in isolation for so long. Soto returned home Tuesday with his family and was wearing an ankle monitor. Destefani said that the federal government had violated due process laws by confining Soto.
Soto entered the United States illegally in 2023. He is pursuing a green card through his marriage to his wife, who is an American citizen. Gabriela Soto said that her husband was arrested while buying diapers for their son. She said that he was transferred to Elizabeth in retaliation for organizing demonstrations over what detainees described as inhumane conditions.
Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey had gathered at the detention center in Elizabeth to support Soto and to denounce his detention. They criticized the federal government’s broader crackdown on immigration, which they described as cruel.
“If we allow our country to mistreat anyone in this way, we open the door for mistreatment to every single American citizen or noncitizen,” said Rep. Analilia Mejia, a Democrat who represents New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. “This is unjust.”
In August, the New Jersey attorney general opened a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall, escalating the state’s fight against the Trump administration over the detention center. The state has also sued to gain access to Delaney for a full health inspection.
The Newark detention center has been a frequent target of criticism from protesters and Democratic lawmakers since it reopened last year as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Detainees complained for at least a year about conditions, which they have described as squalid and unhealthy. Demonstrators have gathered at the center’s front gates, at times clashing with federal agents.
Public records reviewed by The New York Times have supported some complaints. The documents showed that inspectors had found food-preparation surfaces that had been left unsanitized. Workers had touched open garbage containers as they made meals and had not kept food at temperatures necessary to kill contaminants.
The New Jersey Health Department received a complaint in May from a physician about a detainee with an active case of tuberculosis. The physician said that an employee at University Hospital in Newark had told her that the detainee was brought there and returned to Delaney, which did not have a follow-up plan to contain the infection.
If the state finds evidence of civil rights violations at Delaney, the attorney general has said her office will pursue “civil enforcement action” as a means to enforce local laws.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.