Photojournalist rammed by federal officer at New Jersey protest

Freelance photojournalist Madison Swart was shoved to the ground by a federal officer while covering protests outside a private immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on May 28, 2026.

Protests outside the Delaney Hall 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.

Swart and other journalists told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the protests followed a consistent pattern, with a period of calm until law enforcement vehicles tried to exit the facility, when protesters would attempt to block them from leaving and to see whether any detainees were being moved. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would then advance to push back the demonstrators and make arrests, before calm would resume.

“So it was a lot of waiting and then, all of a sudden, they got the order, so they all whipped out their batons — the dramatic kind where you flick it and it extends long,” she said, referring to expandable batons. “That’s when you know that they’re going to move forward.”

Swart said she was standing to the side, far from the protesters, and had been in roughly the same position for nearly an hour, while clearly identifiable as a member of the press, when an officer singled her out.

“There was just one agent who got his baton and then full-force rammed into me, and I fell to the floor,” she said. “I’ve never had that happen before. I’ve never fallen in the field.”

She told the Tracker she believes it was deliberate.

“I don’t know if it was because I was using flash or because he knew who I was,” she told the Tracker. “They knew my presence was there, I made it pretty obvious.”

She said that she stayed on the ground for a second in shock, nervous that the camera sitting on her hip may have broken.

“Then another agent came over to me, grabbed me and brought me up, and asked if I was OK,” Swart continued.

In a statement emailed to the Tracker on June 1, DHS said anyone who obstructs law enforcement or disrupts its operations would be prosecuted. It did not address its use of force against members of the press.

“We remind members of the media to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots and remind journalists that covering unlawful activities in the field does come with risks,” the statement read. “Our officers take every reasonable precaution to mitigate those dangers to those exercising protected First Amendment rights.”