Reporter knocked down by police, fired at with flash bang at New Jersey protest

Independent journalist Nick Valencia was shoved to the ground by a police officer and targeted with a crowd-control munition while covering a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its treatment of detainees 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.

Federal officers responded to the protests with chemical irritants, physical force and arrests, as did state police in the days that followed. The Department of Homeland Security has denied allegations of detainee mistreatment.

Valencia, a former CNN correspondent, was wearing a jacket marking himself as a member of the press while covering the May 29 protest. After authorities issued dispersal orders, Valencia recorded interactions between law enforcement and demonstrators.

He said he repeatedly asked officers where members of the press could position themselves to continue documenting the protest but received no clear guidance. One commanding officer told him that everyone — including journalists — was subject to the dispersal orders.

“They were not acknowledging me when I said I was press,” Valencia later told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

In a video he posted on Facebook, Valencia, who was wearing a gas mask, violently chokes after chemical irritants were sprayed into the air. He can also be clearly heard shouting, “I’m press! I’m press!” as officers with shields push through the crowd. He tells one officer, “I’m independent media. I’m allowed to be here.”

As state police moved to clear the area, Valencia remained out of the way, on a public sidewalk. He described on video as officers pushed demonstrators and mounted police advanced into the crowd.

At one point, a flash-bang device was fired directly toward Valencia and exploded nearby. “I don’t know how I wasn’t hit,” he told the Tracker. Minutes later, he was shoved to the ground by a state police officer in riot gear while he was documenting an arrest.

“I do believe I was deliberately targeted,” Valencia said. “There’s no way they could have mistaken me for anyone else other than a member of the press.”

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.