Immigration News Politics
Librarian organizes unionists against ICE
By Kwadjo Otoo
Public librarian Karl Schwartz first visited the Delaney Hall detention center in 2017, before national news headlines captured ICE officers and anti-ICE protesters in a kind of combat, replete with billy clubs and tear gas.
“It’s kind of this dystopian atmosphere … I’ve heard others refer to it as a sacrifice zone,” said Schwartz, who works at the Van Buren Branch of the Newark Public Library.
Schwartz has been protesting the conditions at Delaney for the past nine years. Now, he is one of the leaders of a coalition of union workers from various sectors who are challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s tactics at Delaney Hall.
That coalition, Labor Eyes On ICE, formed a year ago.
Schwartz had been quick to sign on as a co-founder when Ryan Novosielski of Rutgers Health Professionals & Allied Employees Local 5094 reached out about forming a coalition. In theory, it seemed a reachable goal: a monthly picket outside Delaney with as many people as possible. In actuality, it was harder to realize.
Early on, the Labor Eyes On ICE didn’t attract too many supporters.
“It was very small. But also, there was … a lot of enthusiasm. We said, ‘You know, this is good that we got out this first time, but how can we make this bigger?’” he said.
Today, a number of organizations are part of the coalition. Immigrants rights group COSECHA, the Democratic Socialists of America, Senator Andy Kim, and Mayor Ras J Baraka have all stood beside Labor Eyes on ICE in front of Delaney’s black gates.=
Their collective efforts have resulted in several detainees being released.
“I don’t want to attribute the releases to any single group, but I think people are getting released..because of all the pressure that’s going on on the streets outside Delaney Hall,” Schwartz said.
BETSY QUOTE
Schwartz lived in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood for roughly two years before seeing the east coast’s largest immigration detention facility. After graduating with a master’s degree in library science from Rutgers University Newark, Schwartz became a librarian in what had become his home and was stationed at the Van Buren Branch of the Newark Public Library. At the time, he could not predict his love for literature would place him on the frontlines of decades long tension.
The Ironbound community is home to a majority of Newark’s Latino and Portuguese populations, vibrant and plentiful down Ferry Street. As a result, the neighborhood was one of the first in the city to bear witness to raids.
His wife, Maisy Card, author and long-time librarian in Newark and Jersey City, states that his sense of compassion is what compels people to join him on the frontlines.
“The compassion in his work makes him someone that is always political…He can draw people in but also knows how to be safe,” Card said.
Despite the risk involved, the 37 year old rejects the title of hero, only believing himself to be a concerned community member who couldn’t look away.
“…Either you can sit at home, and you can just watch people’s rights getting violated every day or you can go out and try to do something,” Schwartz said. “And I think we just can’t give up. We have to fight back. There’s no other option.”
On January 23, 2025, ICE detained three undocumented workers from Oceans Seafood Depot, a staple fish market in the Ironbound. The dread spurred from that moment lingered in the air like the smell of something rotten. By the time bakeries lost business and stoops were cleared, the library had been empty for sometime––somewhat of an early warning of what was to come.
On the second floor of the Van Buren Branch, natural light dances in through the windows and highlights every surface. Sunlit in a shallow corner, a student found Schwartz with a question that was impossible to answer. Tears warm on her face, she asked what she should do if her parents were abducted. She was born a citizen but had never been to her parent’s home country. For him, no response was good enough.
“We definitely knew after that we needed to do something to help the community and to grapple with this fear,” Schwartz said.
When he stands amongst other unionized workers, activists, and community members, the fear remains. However, it is made bearable by the memory of people like that student and the echoing cheers from when a detainee walks through the fences.
Despite the recent traction, too few Newark residents even know where Delany Hall is, according to Schwartz. Tucked away in an industrial and inhospitable zone of the Ironbound, Delaney shares gravel with Essex County Correctional, separated only by a parking lot.
He believes that is how its cruelty and others like goes unnoticed.
“You’re never going to see it…I think that’s how our system of Mass incarceration probably works, you know, hundreds of thousands people are impacted by it, but if you’re not in the group of people that are directly affected by it, it’s easy to kind of get on living your life and not think too much about it,” he said.
In a future where Delaney Hall is demolished, he states that efforts for all people shouldn’t stop there.
“We need to build a world where we just don’t have these heavily militarized borders, where people are desperate people, where you are the victims of [your] own government,” Schwartz said.
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In an attempt to empower the community, the library reintroduced their “Know Your Right’s” seminars, meetings with lawyers and community members on legal rights that may be infringed upon. Starting in 2018 during President Trump’s first term, attendance has always been sparse.
A head appears in a window before vanishing. Clunky doors crack open before quickly swinging shut. Schwartz believes there’s a clear reason filled seats are rare.
“People, people are nervous about attending a workshop that is targeted toward the immigrant community. I get the sense that people think that if they go to a “Know Your Right’s” workshop that makes them a target for law enforcement,” Schwartz said.
Stumped but not deterred, Schwartz continued printing out Immigration related paper work, offering free refreshments, and planning community events.
I mean, I just think our biggest success is how many people we’ve been able to bring out to some of our pickets, who would have never gone out otherwise. And then that, of course, you know, leads to that pressure has gotten some people released from Delaney Hall.
“I think that’s how our system of Mass incarceration probably works, you know, hundreds of thousands people are impacted by it, but if you’re not in the group of people that are directly affected by it, it’s easy to kind of get on living your life and not think too much about it.”
If you’re feeling bad about everything you’re seeing on the news and on social media, you will feel better if you go out and try to do something about it.
lives the Ironbound Environmental Justice History and Resource Center. Starting as early 1978, this massive binder chronicles the history of environmental crises over the course of decades.
July 20, 1981: Reports of toxic waste dumplings inspired the Ironbound Committee Against Toxic Waste to confront city officials. June 1, 1984: Residents journey down Ferry St, marching against the construction of an incinerated.