Videographer downed by police at New Jersey immigration protest

Independent videographer David Snow was shoved to the ground by New Jersey state police wielding riot shields while documenting a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its treatment of detainees in Newark on May 31, 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.

Snow told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on May 31, he was documenting a largely peaceful protest after demonstrators had been directed to leave Newark’s curfew zone. Suddenly, ICE officers, and state and Newark police advanced on the crowd from multiple directions.

Snow captured the events live on his YouTube channel, The Exposure Report.

In the video, police shout, “Move! Get out of the way!” Officers then run into the crowd and start pushing people.

“I’m press! I’m going, I’m going,” says Snow, who is holding camera equipment and wearing a visible press credential. Still, state police strike him with their shields, knocking both him and his gear to the ground, temporarily cutting off the view of the livestream before Snow quickly grabs his phone, which was not damaged.

“They basically pummelled me into the floor with their shields,” Snow later says on the live video, out of breath. “They were trying to get me away from my phone. I was able to retrieve it. I’m OK.”

Snow, who sustained minor scrapes and bruises in the scuffle, said law enforcement then gave conflicting demands as they boxed protesters and journalists into a police kettle, a crowd-control tactic that confines people within a restricted area and prevents them from leaving.

Snow was held inside the kettle for roughly ten minutes, and feared he would be arrested.

“There were people saying, I’m press,’ and they said, ‘I don’t give a fuck,’” Snow later recalled.

A supervising officer eventually announced that credentialed journalists were allowed to leave. Later, Snow discovered that his car had been towed from what he maintains was a legal parking space about a mile from the protest site. He is contesting his $85 parking ticket and the $250 cost of retrieving his car.

While documenting a protest a week later, Snow was also shoved.

The state police did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

In a statement posted to X on May 31, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport wrote that state police cleared the area outside Delaney Hall because a group of people refused to leave after the curfew order. She did not address the use of force against members of the press.