A GB News correspondent remained composed under direct personal threats during live coverage outside a New Jersey immigration detention facility, after an anti-ICE protester got in his face, invoked British colonialism and told him he was “holding everything back to break your jaw.”
Ben Leo was reporting live from outside Delaney Hall ICE detention centre in Newark on Saturday — the ninth consecutive day of protests at the site — when he was confronted by an aggressive demonstrator who escalated rapidly from political argument to personal threats. The protester accused Leo of hypocrisy for covering US immigration policy as a British journalist, shouting about Brits “colonising the world through rape, murder and pillaging” and questioning how he could cite crime statistics involving migrant groups. When the confrontation intensified and the protester told Leo to “go back to your country,” the correspondent responded with deadpan British composure: “Aeroplane.”
Throughout the exchange, Leo held his ground near the chain-link fence surrounding the facility, microphone in hand and expression unchanged, asking calmly: “Why are you getting so angry?” and “I’m here to ask questions.” Footage of the confrontation spread rapidly online and has been widely praised for the reporter’s composure under pressure.
The scenes outside Delaney Hall — a privately run facility of approximately 1,000 beds — have grown increasingly volatile over the past week and a half. Detainees inside have staged hunger strikes and labour stoppages over alleged conditions including poor food, inadequate medical care and claims that detainees have been pressured to sign deportation paperwork. Protests outside have drawn far-left activist groups, some from out of state, alongside pro-ICE counter-demonstrators, resulting in repeated clashes involving pepper spray, batons and arrests. One protester has already been federally charged with threatening the family of an ICE officer. Newark authorities have imposed a curfew and state police have established protected zones around the facility, with detainee visiting rights partially restored amid the disorder.
The Delaney Hall protests sit within the broader context of the Trump administration’s ramped-up interior immigration enforcement, which has seen ICE operations significantly intensified since January and turned several detention facilities across the United States into focal points for activists and counter-protesters alike. Officials have attributed the most serious escalations to organised far-left groups rather than the local community, while protest organisers have blamed the deteriorating conditions on federal immigration authorities.
Leo’s response to the confrontation — calm, direct and leavened with dry wit — has drawn considerable admiration online, with many viewers contrasting it sharply with the behaviour of the man threatening him. The moment has also been cited as a broader illustration of the hostility facing journalists covering immigration enforcement on the ground in the United States.
