FBI Calls Delaney Hall Protesters, Seeking Informants

FBI calls – After an anti-ICE protest at Delaney Hall in Newark turned violent, musician John Mark Rozendaal says federal agents called him from the same day he was arrested, urging him to provide information on protesters they described as planning to return with “not th

John Mark Rozendaal went to Delaney Hall with a cello.

On May 29. he and dozens of others answered calls shared on social media to gather outside the immigration detention facility in Newark. New Jersey. Delaney Hall, a privately run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement site. had become the daily backdrop for protests in recent weeks. fueled by a detainee hunger strike against alleged “ghastly conditions” inside.

Rozendaal said he considered music “de-escalatory.” He sat down on the concrete barricade facing north and began to play.

Then, he recalled, the scene shifted fast. New Jersey State Police and ICE agents issued a dispersal order and began clearing protesters by force. with officers deploying chemical weapons and charging protesters on horseback. Rozendaal described advancing riot shields, tear gas canisters flying overhead, and flash-bangs—“quite dramatic,” he said as he played.

Moments later. he was arrested by New Jersey State Police and. according to an arrest report reviewed by The Intercept. charged with one count of obstructing law enforcement. Rozendaal said the charge was minor—until a week later. when the phone call that followed changed the meaning of his detention.

The agent told him, Rozendaal said, “We’re calling because you were arrested at Delaney Hall.” The FBI declined to comment.

Rozendaal said the agents asked whether he would be willing to provide information on protesters they described as “anybody planning to go to Delaney Hall with not the right intentions.” In his account. the message wasn’t just about talking. It was about informing. “So, I mean, they were asking me to inform,” he said.

He rejected the offer, he said, and when the agent pressed further, Rozendaal invoked his right to remain silent, ending the conversation.

The pattern extends beyond one arrest.

Benjamin Van Meter. a deputy public defender with the Essex County Public Defender’s Office who represents protesters facing charges. said he has seen multiple people taken into custody at Delaney Hall receive calls from federal agents looking for information. Van Meter said about 90 people have been arrested so far. and that at least half of those arrested have received calls.

Van Meter lodged a complaint, arguing the FBI’s contact with his clients violated their constitutional rights. The phone number used to contact Rozendaal. according to call history logs reviewed by The Intercept. is registered to the FBI’s New York field office and is posted online as an anonymous tipline.

For federal agents to seek cooperation while protest defendants are already facing criminal exposure is not a surprise to civil liberties advocates familiar with protest-era policing.

Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s New Jersey chapter, pointed to the FBI’s history of trying to turn protesters, political dissidents, and ethnic and religious minorities into informants.

“With every major protest movement in United States history, there have been attempts at infiltration,” Sinha said. He added that the strategy can allow agents to collect information while also sowing distrust within communities.

Sinha said anyone approached by federal agents should remember that they do not have to talk without legal help. “Unless the FBI produces a warrant, you have the right to refuse entry,” he said. “You certainly have the right to stay silent and to demand a lawyer. You are not under any obligation to speak to them about anything — especially if they are charging you with a crime.”.

Samuel Becker. another protester facing local charges after an arrest outside Delaney Hall. said he received a visit from federal agents in the days after his arrest. Becker criticized the timing. saying the FBI “would rather intimidate and punish the people protesting outside of Delaney Hall than investigate the physical. sexual. and psychological violence that ICE agents and their auxiliaries are inflicting on detainees across this country every day.”.

Van Meter said he put those concerns in writing. He wrote to Robert Frazer, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. and two high-ranking FBI officials in New York and New Jersey. demanding that the FBI stop questioning his clients without attorneys present. In a letter dated June 9. Van Meter wrote: “These attempts at contacting our clients at their homes and by phone violate their right to counsel and we ask that you immediately cease and desist from all attempts to question or interrogate our clients without their counsel present.” He added that any further efforts to question his clients would be “a continued violation of their constitutional right to counsel. ” and said his office would pursue relief under both state and federal law.

Karen Paff. a spokesperson for the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. said in a statement to The Intercept that Van Meter and his colleagues were trying to ensure representation is respected. “When law-enforcement officers seek to question individuals who are represented by counsel about matters within the scope of that representation. it is our responsibility to notify the appropriate agencies that counsel has been assigned and that any such communications must comply with the law. ” Paff said. She said it “is not a new or case-specific practice” and described notifying counsel as a routine part of her office’s obligations when people who are already represented may be approached for questioning.

Rozendaal said he heard the calls as more than an effort to gather names.

“I think the real intent is to divide us, to make us scared to talk to each other, too scared to talk in general, scared to go to Delaney Hall,” he said. “It won’t work.”

FBI informants Delaney Hall anti-ICE protests Newark New Jersey State Police ICE John Mark Rozendaal Benjamin Van Meter Robert Frazer ACLU New Jersey public defender