Photojournalist pushed over concrete barrier at New Jersey protest

Freelance photojournalist Bruce Cotler was shoved over a concrete barricade by state police and threatened with arrest while covering a protest outside an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on May 29, 2026.

Protests outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility began May 22, when many detainees went on a hunger strike. Members of Congress, state and local lawmakers and rights groups have alleged dire conditions at the facility. The Department of Homeland Security has denied allegations of detainee mistreatment.

Federal officers have responded to the protests with chemical irritants, physical force and arrests, as did state police in the days that followed.

Cotler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protest was peaceful until New Jersey State Police moved in to clear the area outside Delaney Hall.

As police wielding riot shields pushed people away from the detention center, an officer shoved Cotler with enough force to send him backward over a concrete barricade.

“I was hit so hard that it knocked me out of my sneakers,” he said.

A colleague saw him fall and called two others over to help him up. Cotler said he feared he would be arrested if the police had reached him before fellow journalists did. He said he was wearing visible press credentials at the time and believed the shove was targeted.

“I wanted them to know that I was press, and they just had radar lock,” he said. “They didn’t care who it was, they just went brutal.”

The fall left Cotler bruised and chipped the screen of the cellphone he was using to record the protest. He said his phone has not operated the same since. Days later, he discovered a large bruise on his side from striking the pavement.

Throughout the night, officers deployed tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd, affecting Cotler despite his use of personal protective equipment. He said police also shined bright lights directly into camera lenses, obstructing his and other journalists’ abilities to document the scene.

After officers announced over a loudspeaker that people should leave the area, Cotler said an officer threatened him with arrest when he tried to return to his nearby vehicle.

Cotler, a veteran photojournalist and president of the New York Press Photographers Association, said he was contributing images to Zuma Press that day, some of which were later distributed by Reuters.

“I’ve been to many riots over the years and this was definitely the worst that was handled,” he said. “They were just out — in my opinion — for blood.”

The New Jersey State Police Office of Public Information did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

In a statement posted to X early May 30, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport wrote that state police were clearing the area outside Delaney Hall because a small number of people were blocking the pathway for law enforcement vehicles. It did not address the use of force against members of the press.