BY WALTER ELLIOTT
PHOTO COURTESY NEWARK PRESS OFFICE
NEWARK – If anyone believed that President Donald J. Trump’s Second Administration would limit his post-Jan. 20 deportation of undocumented or illegal persons to those who have been convicted of violent crimes as a priority, there are workers, business owners and public officials here, since Jan. 23, who will dissuade you of that notion.
“They didn’t have a court order or, I mean, I didn’t even ask,” said the owner of an Ironbound food wholesaler to a reporter the afternoon up to 12 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered his premises unannounced at about 11:30 a.m. that Thursday.
A video later aired by Univision 41 showed the “HSI” uniformed agents enter the Ocean Seafood Depot here at 331 Adams St. that Thursday morning. The agents, said the owner, then asked everyone there to show them their identification cards or papers.
Some of the agents then entered the wholesaler’s back offices and break rooms, wanting documentation from eight people and taking fingerprints on-site.
They then detained three people. Two, who were unable to provide documentation, were issued Notices To Appear at ICE’s Newark office in the Peter Rodino Federal Building at 970 Broad St.
“A couple of the guys couldn’t show their identification,” added the owner. “Twenty-six years in the business – I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The owner said that his manager tried to show the agents his military veterans identification card – but they refused. A video showed agents arresting the man – a U.S. citizen – outside the premises and taking him most likely to ICE’s privately run Elizabeth Contract Facility at 625 Evans St.
Trump, from his third Presidential campaign and into his 12:10 p.m. Jan. 20 inauguration address, had pledged to immediately halt all illegal entry and “begin returning the millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places to which they came.” He would reinstate his Remain in Mexico policy from his first administration, “end the policy of catch and release and send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
President Trump would later sign several executive orders that Monday afternoon, from among a wide-ranging blizzard of some 1,600, pertaining to unauthorized and legal immigration.
Although most of the orders had a Jan. 27 effectiveness date, there were reports as early as Jan. 21 that the illegals who were convicted of a crime were identified from among the 122 federal prisons and were being processed for deportation.
They were flown “back home” on military aircraft instead of the chartered commercial airliners used by the Joseph Biden and Barack Obama administrations. One video released on Jan. 27 showed chained men walking single file through the rear cargo doors of an olive drab USAF Lockheed C5A Galaxy.
That “convicts only” presumption was shaken in Newark that Thursday lunch hour. The anger was clear from Mayor Ras Baraka on two occasions plus U.S. Senators Cory A. Booker and Andy Kim, Congresswomen Mikie Sherrill and LaMonica McIver and other elected officials.
What was particularly upsetting was that the U.S. citizen manager is still being detained in Elizabeth as of press time.
“ICE agents invaded a local establishment, detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant,” said the mayor late Jan. 23. “One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of having his military documentation questioned. This egregious act is in violation of the U.S. Constitution Fourth Amendment, which guarantees ‘right of the people (to) be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.’
“Newark will not stand idly by while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” said Baraka, who added in his 11:30 a.m. Jan. 24 City Hall press conference, “The problem is that none of these people were rapists, or murderers or criminals. ICE went in there without a warrant. Today, they’ll go into a store and violate people’s rights without a warrant and pull you out; tomorrow, they’ll come into your house.”
An ICE spokesman said that its agents, “may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish a person’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today (Jan. 23) in Newark.”
The action-reaction here in Newark is being played against the finding and detention processing of non-violent unauthorized persons in ICE “field work” throughout the U.S.
ICE, on its X (formerly Twitter) account, said it has made 3,552 arrests Jan. 23-27 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Its daily totals started with 538 on Thursday and went on to 503 on Friday, 286 on Saturday, 956 on Sunday and 1,179 on Monday.
The Trump Administration has asked ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies Sunday to make between 1,200 and 1,500 daily arrests. The Biden Administration, as of Sept. 30, 2024, made 310.7 average daily arrests.
The “field work” or raid locations ranged from New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle and “North Texas” to San Juan, PR. Some, including Newark and New Jersey, are sanctuary cities and some others not. One planned location is the Aurora, Colo. apartment complex Trump touted in his campaign as being controlled by a criminal immigrant street gang.
ICE agents were joined by U.S. Marshalls, US Department of Homeland Security, the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and other federal-level law enforcement agencies. Some sub-federal officials will have their police and sheriffs to fully or partially assist ICE and others not.
Some of the locations were high profile. “Dr. Phil” McGraw and his Merit Street Media platform were embedded with HHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and “Border Czar” Tom Homan were trailing agents on one Sunday raid. McGraw later said that ICE was not “sweeping through neighborhoods.”
Noem joined ICE and company at 6 a.m. Monday on a raid of an apartment building in The Bronx’s Highbridge neighborhood. They arrested a man, with ties to the Venezuelan Ten de Aragua gang, who has assault, burglary and kidnapping charges against him. Mayor Eric Adams said that the NYPD is cooperating with ICE et. al. so long as arrestees are wanted violent criminals.
Back in New Jersey, Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh confirmed on Monday that ICE hit two locations in his city the day before. He said he was not sure if the feds were working “a proper investigation” with court-ordered warrants.
“We’re receiving reports that people were not going to work or their children not going to school,” said Sayegh. “I had a pastor calling me, saying that members of his church were coming to him crying.”
The pastor has reason for concern. One of Trump’s orders was to lift a 30-year-old DHS/ICE access ban on “sensitive” or sanctuary locations like houses of worship, schools and hospitals. It is not clear whether ICE will also detain or arrest people in courtrooms.
Thirty Philadelphia-based Society of Friends, or Quaker, groups have filed a suit against DHS in District Court-Maryland Monday. They are claiming that lifting the ban is in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Other New Jersey reports of local ICE presence include Asbury Park and Neptune police and witnesses. While Neptune police confirm the agents in their town Friday, Asbury Park Police Sgt Mike Casey referred inquiries to ICE.
It is becoming rapidly apparent, from “Czar Homan’s” Monday comments, that deportation is not just for criminals only – and it would be best for some “illegals to self-deport.”
“If you’re in this country illegally, you’ve got a problem,” Hohman said Sunday. “We’re going to get the worst, first. Sanctuary cities lock us out of the jails. We’ve millions of people standing in line, taking the test, doing their background investigation, paying the fees, that want to come in the right way.”
Homan’s comment is ironic in the sense that Trump’s orders including suspending or closing Temporary Protective Status and other legal immigration avenues – leaving some of those in an adjacent country or around the world and who were doing the “right way” in a vacuum.
The following advice on encountering ICE, etc. is from a combination of civil rights and advocacy groups:
- If you do not have a governmental, school and/or work ID – get one. New Jersey is not one of the states who require individuals to present identification demanded by law enforcement. Twelve states – New York, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Alabama, Florida and Utah – do. Consult those states for particulars before you go.
- Find a trusted contact and make a plan with him/her/them. Those plans may include giving that contact the power of attorney and/or custody of relatives.
- Know your rights.
- Remain calm during the encounter and tell the truth.
- ICE must furnish a search warrant signed by a judge – and no one else. If they do not have that warrant, do not open the door or let them in. They can be told to go away until they have the said signed warrant.
- Document what they do. You may record their activity so long as you do not interfere with their activity. You may take notes after they leave.
- The Miranda Rights are applicable here. You may remain silent and only ask for a lawyer. Local law enforcement are required to allow you to make a phone call from detention.
