The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, mentioned an immigration raid within the metropolis was achieved with no warrant, and led to the detainment of undocumented residents in addition to residents.
Newark mayor Ras Baraka mentioned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had raided a neighborhood institution. “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” he wrote in a press release.
The mayor’s announcement got here as main cities throughout the US braced for Ice raids, as promised by Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who has mentioned the federal authorities will uphold Trump’s promise of “mass deportations”. Homan has signaled that so-called sanctuary cities – localities which have refused handy over immigrants to federal authorities – could be early targets for raids.
Ice introduced it has made a complete of 538 arrests in a Thursday replace. The company didn’t instantly reply to the Guardian’s question about when and the place within the US the arrests have been made.
The numbers aren’t essentially distinctive – the company averaged greater than 450 arrests a day in 2023, when Joe Biden was president, for example. However the company’s actions have drawn explicit focus amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Since taking workplace on Monday, the president has unleashed a barrage of immigration orders and coverage modifications, together with steering that immigration officers can be allowed conduct enforcement at delicate places comparable to faculties and church buildings.
Ice declined to supply particulars concerning the date and site of its raid in New Jersey. Baraka mentioned that among the many folks detained there was a US navy veteran, “who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned” by officers.
“This egregious act is in plain violation of the fourth amendment of the US constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures’,” the mayor mentioned.
Ice has mentioned the company “may encounter US citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark”.
The raids, and its impact on folks with and with out citizenship have drawn outrage and condemnation from a number of New Jersey lawmakers, together with the US consultant Bonnie Watson Coleman. “This is a disgrace,” she wrote in a press release. “This is what we expect from two-bit dictators in banana republics.”
LaMonica McIver, one other consultant, wrote: “Already, Trump’s attacks on immigrant communities are hitting home and we will not back down.”
The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice has urged residents to attend “know your rights” workshops it’s arranging, to assist residents perceive their authorized rights after they encounter immigration enforcement brokers.
Advocates and native leaders in cities throughout the US have been equally making ready for raids. In Chicago – the place greater than 50,000 folks, principally from Venezuela, have arrived up to now two years – the mayor Brandon Johnson mentioned he has been working with group teams to teach residents about their rights.
