Warehousing Human Beings

About this episode

The episode discusses the inhumane conditions at immigration detention facilities and the protests against them.

Join The Intercept Briefing podcast on Tuesday, June 16, at 5 pm ET (2 p.m. PT) for a live episode. Intercept journalist Jonah Valdez and Tariq Kenney-Shawa, an Al-Shabaka U.S. policy fellow, will discuss the not-so-real ceasefires in Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon.  You can RSVP here. Episode Description: Hundreds of detained people launched a hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, over Memorial Day weekend to protest inhumane conditions at the immigration detention facility run by the for-profit company GEO Group . Protesters flocked to the scene to echo detainees’ pleas for release and better conditions — and were met with brutal tactics from federal, local, and state law enforcement officials, who beat, tear-gassed, and arrested protesters. “Detainees are raising that they have no access to quality medical care, that they're not getting needed medications,” Andrea Sáenz , a former federal appellate immigration judge who was fired by the Trump administration last year, tells The Intercept Briefing. “They don't have enough food to eat. The food that they are getting is spoiled. They're facing hostility and harassment and violence from the…

People in this episode

Host: Jessica Washington

Guests: Jonah Valdez, Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

Topics covered

• immigration detention
• Gaza ceasefires
• protests
• human rights
• medical care
• law enforcement

Keywords

• detention centers
• hunger strike
• protests
• medical care
• GEO Group
• Newark
• human rights

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: GEO Group

Places: Newark, New Jersey

More episodes of The Intercept Briefing

• The Right’s “Election Fraud” Cry for Midterms Previewed in Primaries · June 12, 2026 · 32 min
• The Race to Build AI Data Centers — Before the People Can Protest · May 29, 2026 · 36 min
• AIPAC, AI, Crypto and Gambling Are Hiding Their Big Election Spends · May 22, 2026 · 27 min
• “We Will Find You and We Will Kill You” · May 15, 2026 · 42 min
• The Supreme Court Ends Multiracial Democracy as We Know It · May 8, 2026 · 44 min
• Another Assassination Attempt, More Fertilizer for Conspiracy Theories · May 1, 2026 · 46 min