Have immigration raids started in N.J.? Feds, activists disagree

Have immigration raids started in N.J.? Feds, activists disagree


By Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

on January 07, 2016 at 8:21 PM, updated January 07, 2016 at 11:10 PM

NEWARK — Immigration activists from across the state gathered in front of the federal building that houses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Thursday afternoon to protest planned raids across the nation as news spread that they may have started in New Jersey.

"These are the worst raids ever," said Rita Dentino, director of Casa Freehold. "The target is woman and children."

Dentino said organizers at the Monmouth county based immigrant advocacy group received calls early Thursday regarding an early morning raid where two U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers broke down the door of a Freehold home and took two adults without arrest warrants.

Carlos Rojas, an immigration organizer with Faith In New Jersey, said they received calls from family of a college-aged student with a work permit to remain in the country who was falsely taken during an early morning raid in New Brunswick Tuesday.

"On Monday, 121 people were picked up in states like Texas and Georgia, that's confirmed," Rojas said. "But there is activity throughout the country."

Alvin Phillips, the New Jersey spokesperson for ICE, said Thursday afternoon those stories were false.

"There have been no raids in New Jersey, no doors have been kicked down," Phillips said. "In Freehold people were stopped and let go."

Across the nation more than a hundred undocumented immigrants mainly from Georgia, Texas and North Carolina were targeted for deportation this past weekend, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh C. Johnson confirmed in a statement on Monday.

"As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal migration," Johnson said in the statement. "If you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values."

ICE said in a statement it's targeting the influx of families with minors who fled violence from Central America in the spring/summer of 2014 and have since lost their cases to stay in the country.

Since 2014, more than 100,000 families with minors have come to the U.S., according to numbers from the Department of Homeland Security. A majority of these families are from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, some of the most violent and poverty stricken countries in the world. Specifics on the number of those families who are in New Jersey were not available by DHS.

On Wednesday U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the only Latino Democrat in the Senate and who advocated for a bipartisan path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the states, denounced the move.

"These raids illustrate the many painful aspects of a system that has failed, including harsh tactics facing undocumented mothers and children whose only mistake was to escape a certain death in their native countries," said Menendez in a statement.

Phillips told NJ Advance Media that the raids being reported in other states like Georgia are not applicable to New Jersey, but possible.

"Officers are out there doing their job," Phillips said. "Things are always subject to change."

Phillips said that of the 235,413 individuals removed by ICE in fiscal year 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014 — Sept. 30, 2015) 1,960 were removed from New Jersey.

Of those almost 2,000, 86 percent were Priority 1 criminals, which ICE defines as — aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety, noted Phillips in light of recent news accounts of family raids.

Secretary Johnson's Monday memo also defended the raids.
"I know there are many who loudly condemn our enforcement efforts as far too harsh, while there will be others who say these actions don't go far enough. I also recognize the reality of the pain that deportations do in fact cause," Johnson said in his memo defending the raids. "But, we must enforce the law consistent with our priorities."

When asked what people who come across ICE can do, a spokesman for Menendez pointed to a flyer from United We Dream, a national youth-led immigrant rights group, which suggests not to open your doors, consult an attorney, and check warrants, etc.

As more than 100 people gathered in the January chill to denounce ICE's latest tactics, tales of ICE knocking on doors or being seen around Newark were floated around.

Alex Garcia, a volunteer with New Jersey Communities United, said a Newark woman called the group saying an ICE agent had knocked on her door Wednesday morning but she did not open it.

Another woman said that on Monday morning, her daughter had seen agents wearing ICE jackets interrogating employees outside of the McDonald's she works at in Bloomfield.

Those who reportedly had interactions with ICE and were at the rally refused to talk to the media because they were too distraught, according to community organizers.

As organizers work to spread information and protest the raids they seem to do little to quench the fear of a worried immigrant community.

"We are trying to keep everyone calm," said Dentino of Casa Freehold. "We want everyone to continue life as normal."

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