Oversight Project Releases Records Showing Delaney Hall Hunger Strike Illegal Alien Leader Was Arrested for Domestic Violence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2026
Washington, D.C.–Today the Oversight Project released 46 pages of Kearny Police Department, Hudson County Corrections and New Jersey Superior Court records on Martin A. Soto-Hernandez. Soto-Hernandez is the Peruvian-national Democrats and activists made the face of the claimed hunger strike at Delaney Hall. The records show he went into ICE custody after police arrested him at 2:05 a.m. on a domestic violence call. Activists’ story was that ICE grabbed him while he was out buying diapers.
The sworn complaint warrant charges that he "purposely caus[ed] bodily injury,” including by covering “Ms. Soto’s mouth so she could not scream for help.” A judicial officer found probable cause. Plus, there were children in the room. On February 2, Superior Court Judge Ramy A. Eid released him on his own recognizance and ordered no contact with the alleged victim. Because a DHS immigration detainer (Form I-247A) was on file, Hudson County discharged him the same day “TBT [to be taken] ICE.” Soto-Hernandez walked out of ICE custody last week after a federal judge granted his habeas petition.
This is the same facility where Rep. LaMonica McIver confronted federal agents in May 2025, a confrontation that led to her federal indictment for assaulting, impeding and interfering with federal officers. Days afterward, the Oversight Project published a legal memo taking apart the claim that storming an ICE facility counts as “congressional oversight.” On August 26, 2026, the Third Circuit allowed two counts against McIver to go forward, calling the alleged pushing and striking “unambiguously non-legislative.” In May, the Oversight Project condemned Democrats’ continued attacks on ICE at Delaney Hall.
The Oversight Project has testified to Congress twice on this matter. First, Mike Howell provided advice to resistant Democrats on how to stay out of jail. Later, Scott Mechkowski broke down the incident to the House Judiciary Committee.
Oversight Project President Mike Howell gave this statement:
“You can't say I didn't try warning Rep. McIver and her colleagues. DC sure can be a thankless town. In any event, I think McIver still would have stormed the ICE facility even if she knew she was doing it on behalf of an illegal alien wife beater, like we just proved. Maybe she would have stormed it even harder, actually. At this point, I don't think that Soto-Hernandez was hungry for anything but more violence and not getting deported. Truth is the radicals don't believe a single illegal alien should be deported. That's why they opened the border and will do it again if they get the chance.”
Oversight Project Visiting Fellow for Deportation Studies Scott Mechkowski gave this statement:
"Every reporter, congressman, and senator who put his name on ‘Free Martin Soto’ had the same access to the facts I did. They did not call the police department and they did not ask for the report. They took one person’s word because it fit what they already wanted to say about ICE, and they let federal officers be called kidnappers for months. They helped fuel and incite the ‘Mayhem at Delaney.’ When Gabriela Soto announced she miscarried she would sue ICE and later called her loss an ICE murder, but a public accusation of homicide against federal agency needs evidence, and none has been shown to me and fact checked never. I testified that the hunger strikes at Delaney Hall were staged for the cameras, and I stand by that testimony and every representative who visited Delaney hall knows the truth, the Newark Mayor knows, they all knew.”
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Watch Mike Howell take-down of Democrat Rep. Ansari during a Senate Judiciary hearing on Delaney Hall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffuYXMicZHs
Read our press release condemning assaults on ICE: https://itsyourgov.org/press/oversight-project-condemns-democrats-continued-attacks-on-ice
Read our memo: Invalid Oversight Defense to Alleged Criminal Activity in Newark, New Jersey by Members of Congress