Independent photojournalist Josh Pacheco was struck in a hit-and-run by a private security company employee who was driving from a detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on June 5, 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, which is owned and operated by The Geo Group.
Federal officers responded to the protests with chemical irritants, physical force and arrests.
The Department of Homeland Security has denied allegations of detainee mistreatment.
Pacheco told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were documenting as protesters gathered around an entrance to the facility while Geo employees were exiting in their vehicles. Demonstrators were holding signs in front of the car windows, calling on the employees to quit their jobs and slapping their hands on the vehicles.
“I think a good four or five cars followed a similar path out at a very constant speed that was slow enough for somebody to move out of the way without harming them,” Pacheco said. “Then this black Mercedes just pumped up the gas and turned their steering wheel directly into me.”
In the footage Pacheco captured in the moments before they were struck, multiple vehicles can be seen exiting the facility and turning down the road without incident, as they threaded between two lines of protesters. Then, a Mercedes can be seen sharply turning to the left, toward the photojournalist.
Pacheco told the Tracker that the vehicle ran over their feet and then the hood or side mirror clipped them, spinning them before they ultimately fell to the ground.
Demonstrators and other members of the press quickly rushed to Pacheco’s side, holding them in place as a medic assessed their injuries.
“At the same time, there’s still a bunch of cars zipping past me,” they told the Tracker, “So I start to army crawl away and say, ‘I’m afraid to move my feet, so like drag me out of here!’ Needless to say, they get me up to my feet and eventually take me across the street, and they ice my feet and bandage them.”
Josh Pacheco photographs their feet wrapped in ice, a field treatment by street medics after the independent photojournalist was struck by an employee driving out of an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on June 5, 2026.
— COURTESY JOSH PACHECOPacheco said that though the Newark Police Division is supposed to have an EMT on site in case any protesters are injured, they have never seen one. Forty minutes after being hit, Pacheco said they spent an additional 20 minutes waiting for an ambulance that was said to be coming, but ultimately were taken instead by a fellow journalist to a hospital.
“Now it’s about two hours after the incident, and they take about 15 X-rays and a CT scan of my head: no broken bones, no brain bleed, just a lot of soft tissue damage and muscle damage,” they told the Tracker. “I’m in complete shock. My adrenaline is going, I’m cracking jokes, I seem fine. But I’m in pain. They didn’t prescribe me anything.”
Pacheco also said that their camera’s lens and lens hood were further chipped, and that they lost a flash in the chaos, but that it was picked up by a journalist, so they expect to get it back eventually.
When asked about follow-up treatment they may need, Pacheco said it’s uncertain, because they don’t have health insurance.
“I could go see any number of doctors right now, but I’d have to pay out of pocket, which I guess I should do,” they told the Tracker. “I just … It’s all scary. And money and things are tight.”
Geo Group did not respond to a request for comment.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.