Fox News host Greg Gutfeld yesterday defended maggots being fed to detainees at the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. A majority of the detainees there have not been convicted of any crimes but are being held as part of a “civil” legal process.
During an installment of the Fox News discussion program The Five, Gutfeld noted that Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) recently visited the facility and said that food portions given to detainees were small. Co-host Jessica Tarlov then noted that Nadler also said the portions often contained maggots.
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“Yeah, but it’s in small portions,” Gutfeld said, later adding, “Maggots or not, the food is dietitian approved,” and “Who cares if there are maggots?”
The watchdog group Media Matters for America posted a clip of Gutfeld’s remarks on the Bluesky social media platform, where numerous commenters called him “vile,” “horrible,” “evil,” and an “a**hole” and suggested that he should regularly ingest food with maggots in it.
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Other commenters noted that a dietitian is a credentialed healthcare professional who determines that meals meet specific health, nutritional, or medical standards, and that such professionals rarely witness all meals being served at a facility in-person; they often just look over a menu of planned ingredients to assess it. Also, no dietitian would ever approve a meal with maggots on it since the fly larvae often feed on rotting or improperly stored meat, which is unsafe for human consumption.
Clashes with federal authorities have occurred outside of Delaney Hall during the past weeks, in protests over poor hygiene and healthcare at the facility. Detainees there have begun hunger strikes to protest the conditions inside. An estimated 300 detainees are being held in the approximately 1,000-bed facility.
“What I saw with my own eyes and heard from inmates should shake America’s soul,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said.
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