According to ICE data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Deportation Data Project, ICE transferred 489 detainees out of Delaney Hall, its largest detention center in the New York metro area, during a monthlong protest and hunger strike in spring 2026, with the facility's population dropping from over 700 to 420 in days. Among those moved was Martin Soto, a Peruvian detainee whose pregnant wife, Gabriela, a U.S. citizen, had been a lead organizer of nightly protests outside the facility; ICE agents broke through a blockade of demonstrators in the early hours of May 25 to transfer him to a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he has remained in solitary confinement since. Advocates, including Kathy O'Leary of Pax Christi USA, part of the Eyes on ICE coalition that has supported Delaney Hall detainees since the facility opened in spring 2025, said the transfers appeared aimed at breaking bonds between detainees and their outside support network amid a strike sparked by complaints of poor food and inadequate medical care. Detainees were later dispersed to 32 facilities across ten states, with one in three sent to Louisiana, and a Homeland Security spokesperson disputed the accuracy of the underlying data.