Newark Mayor Ras Baraka speaks out against recent immigration raids during a news conference on Jan. 24, 2025. (Fran Baltzer for New Jersey Monitor)
Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz took to the podium in Newark City Hall Friday, hours after immigration enforcement officials shocked the city in a job site raid — and urged the packed room of residents, immigrant advocates, and reporters to pray.
“I’m afraid, and maybe, I’m tired, emotional. I don’t want to be here as the Senate Majority Leader — I’m here as a mother, as a Newarker, as a first-generation Puerto Rican born here,” said Ruiz, her voice breaking.
Ruiz (D-Essex) was one of dozens of elected officials and activists who spoke at a news conference in Newark to denounce the Thursday raid that led ICE agents to detain several undocumented workers and U.S. citizens, including a military veteran. Throughout the hour-long meeting, they described the agents’ actions as “chilling,” “cruel,” and “a slippery slope.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the city would not let the federal government trample on people’s constitutional rights. Even after President Donald Trump threatened to prosecute city and state officials who resist immigration enforcement, Baraka vowed not to stand down.
“They threaten democracy, they threaten us individually, they say they’re going to arrest us if we stand up and uphold these rights. I’m not afraid of that, and if he thinks we’re gonna just go to jail quietly, he’s got another thing coming,” said Baraka, prompting claps from the crowd.
ICE conducted raids around the country this week, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to clamp down forcefully on immigration and begin mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The mood at the news conference was somber as officials laid out the details of Thursday’s raid. Organizers with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, based in Newark, received a call about the raid at a warehouse that’s attached to a storefront. Amy Torres, the alliance’s executive director, said ICE officials “walked in like it was their empire’s own conquered land.”
ICE agents allegedly blocked exits and banged on bathroom doors, advocates said, before questioning at least eight people and taking three into custody. Torres noted the warehouse typically is staffed with 70 to 80 people — on Thursday, just 15 workers showed up.
Baraka said a veteran showed his military ID but was still questioned. Some citizens were fingerprinted and had photos of their face and IDs taken, the mayor said.
In a statement to the New Jersey Monitor, immigration officials did not confirm any details.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. 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 yesterday in Newark, New Jersey,” said Jeff Carter, an agency spokesman.
Baraka said agents did not show the store owner a warrant, nor has ICE produced one. People can disagree on politics, he said, but there shouldn’t be disagreements about the U.S. Constitution and rights of due process.
While Baraka and other Newark leaders talked at the news conference, reports of ICE agents visiting a nearby restaurant began swirling, sparking fear among the activists. The officers did not detain or question anyone, activists said, but their presence instills fear in the community.
“If they can’t deport or physically detain you, they want to detain you into the isolation of your own home so that you’re disenrolling your kids from school, so that when you are sick or having a health emergency, you’re too scared to go to the doctor,” Torres said, “because God forbid that should put you on ICE’s radar.”
Amid the tears and anxiety, people looked for accountability too. After Baraka finished speaking, an activist in the crowd shouted to pass the Immigrant Trust Act, a bill languishing in the Legislature that would allow immigrants to access public agencies without fear of deportation.
“Where is Governor Murphy?” another person shouted.
The governor has not commented publicly on the ICE raids. But Murphy did reach out earlier this week to the federal government on a separate issue — congestion pricing.
Congressman Rob Menendez (D-08) said that’s “not the priority” elected officials should have right now. He’s focused on keeping immigration detention out of Newark, where the Biden administration looked to re-open a detention center last year. The Trump administration could act quicker in the “challenging legal landscape,” he said.
“This is the issue that’s going to come into our communities, come into our neighborhoods — we’re going to see it come deeper and deeper,” he said.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11), a former federal prosecutor, called the warrantless searches “really unsettling.” She suggested the state take legal action to protect people from undue search and seizure.
“We’re still looking for some more information on exactly what took place here. But the thought that federal agents are possibly illegally entering businesses or homes is really scary and and not acceptable in New Jersey — and certainly something that I think we need, as a state, to block and to make sure that the Constitution is followed here in the state of New Jersey,” she told the New Jersey Monitor.
Attorney General Matt Plakin said law enforcement agencies regularly work with federal partners to remove “violent criminals.”
“However, President Trump’s stated desire to deport millions of people clearly goes beyond removing dangerous criminals,” Platkin said in a statement. “And some of the tactics could very well make us less safe, for instance, by making people in our communities fearful of coming forward and reporting crimes.”
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