Videographer pushed down by police, arrested at New Jersey immigration protest

Independent videographer Patrick Nealis was shoved to the ground by a law enforcement officer and arrested while documenting a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its treatment of detainees in Newark, New Jersey, 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.

Nealis, who holds a journalism degree and has worked in video production, said he went to Delaney Hall to document the protests over two weeks, and his footage was picked up by at least one mainstream media outlet.

“My intention for covering the Delaney Hall protest was because I have a journalism background, and to film it and post it and be as impartial as possible,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

At one point during the protest, state police in riot gear rushed the intersection and surrounded the crowd in a police kettle.

Officers reviewed press credentials individually and allowed credentialed journalists to leave. Nealis, who was filming on his cellphone while supporting a credentialed journalist, was also identified as a member of the media and permitted to leave.

Roughly 45 minutes later, the police response changed.

Nealis gathered with a group of mostly journalists on a grassy hill overlooking the protest, physically separated from demonstrators in the street. Instead of moving first toward the crowd below, Nealis said an officer sprinted directly toward the area where press were standing and charged at him with a riot shield.

“He hit me so hard, it knocked me to the ground and knocked my phone out of my hand, and I rolled down the hill to the sidewalk,” said Nealis, who suffered a skinned knee. “It was very aggressive.”

Before the assault, the officer did not give Nealis an opportunity to identify himself. Instead, he forced the reporter to the ground and zip-tied his wrists. Nealis repeatedly identified himself as a journalist during his arrest and processing.

Nealis and at least four other journalists were taken to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, operated by the sheriff’s office, and released the next day.

He was initially charged with rioting and resisting arrest. Prosecutors later reduced the rioting charge to failure to disperse and dropped the resisting arrest charge. A court date is scheduled for Aug. 6.

The New Jersey State Police Office of Public Information 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 or arrest of members of the press.