ELIZABETH, New Jersey (RNS) — Martín Alonso Soto Hernandez, a Peruvian asylum seeker who was held in solitary confinement at Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility after helping organize a hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall, was released from ICE custody around 8 p.m. Tuesday evening (Oct. 6). His immigration case remains ongoing.
Martín Soto, left, embraces his wife, Gabriela Soto, and two children after being released from Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Oct. 6. 2026. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
Soto, wearing an ankle monitor, was reunited with his wife, Gabriela Soto — who has become a vocal immigrant rights advocate — and his two young children.
“I don’t have words,” he said in Spanish, holding his wife and children and addressing roughly two-dozen people gathered in support outside the center. “Thank you so much for everything. I always, always stayed in prayer.”
His wife — wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt that read “I am an immigrant do you want to deport me too?” — also spoke, saying in Spanish, “God gave me the strength to continue fighting for my husband, for justice for everybody, and he gave me the strength for our family to be reunited.”
The Sotos, who live in Kearny, New Jersey, married in 2024 and attended a church in Newark before Martín Soto’s arrest in early 2026, according to Gabriela Soto, who is a U.S. citizen. She became active in rallies outside Delaney Hall after her husband was detained there in early 2026, saying her husband was served food contaminated with worms and was not receiving adequate medical care. The Department of Homeland Security and the GEO Group, a private company that operates Delaney Hall, have denied allegations of mistreatment at the facility.
Pastor Archange Antoine, center left, leads a weekly People’s Vigil outside Delaney Hall, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
On May 22, local news reported, Gabriela Soto organized a rally to call attention to the hunger and labor strike and demand the release of everyone in detention. Clergy and immigrant rights activists rallied around Martín Soto’s case. Two days later, according to NJ.com, Martín Soto was transferred to Elizabeth Detention Center. Activists and faith leaders described the move as retaliation for his involvement in the strike. He later was placed in solitary confinement and, according to Gabriela Soto, his mental health suffered significantly.
“He thought he was going to leave by deportation or committing suicide,” she said at a vigil Monday.
DHS did not respond to questions about whether they held Martín Soto in solitary confinement or if it was in retaliation for the hunger strike. Instead, an ICE spokesperson wrote in an email that he is “charged with assault,” helped incite “unrest” at Delaney Hall, and would receive due process. Martín Soto’s attorney, Selenia Destefani, told RNS the assault case was dismissed. She added that they are challenging his deportation order and pursuing various options for obtaining legal status.
“It’s not just Martín, you know, and he knows this is not just for him. It’s for all the people that are in this situation,” said Destefani. “I’m a mother. Seeing, thinking about being away from my kids for many months is unthinkable.”
Gabriela Soto prays for her husband Martín’s release outside the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
Local faith leaders and activists have been holding weekly protests and vigils in front of Delaney Hall for months, calling for the closure of the facility. On Monday, Gabriela Soto attended one of them.
Afterward, she invited those present to join her 20 minutes away at Elizabeth Detention Center to pray for her husband’s release. About a dozen people gathered around the front of the building, many of them taking turns holding her children.
“I know you can move mountains and make a man walk on water; I know you are present, and I know you will bring deliverance, break down these walls, and make all of this possible,” she prayed emphatically in Spanish, standing in front of the detention center sign.
On Tuesday evening, watching the Sotos embrace each other, one of the faith-based vigil organizers, Charlene Walker, said she was “beyond elated” and spoke of the faith that led to his release. “I look at this hodgepodge of people,” Walker, executive director of Faith in New Jersey, a multi-faith, pro-immigrant network, said. “I think it is the clearest declaration of what God’s people look like, and that it’s going to take all of us if we’re going to get free.”
