Jersey City Officials Slam ICE After Weekend Raids

Jersey City officials are demanding that federal immigration agents leave the community following the arrest of ten residents this past Sunday—an operation local leaders claim relied on racial profiling and “indiscriminate targeting.”

In a press conference on Wednesday, Mayor James Solomon (D) confirmed that the ten individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are currently being held at Delaney Hall in Newark. The arrests have sparked a fierce jurisdictional battle, with the city moving to maximize legal protections for immigrant communities “within the limits of the law.”

The arrests have drawn sharply different descriptions from federal and local authorities. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated that ICE arrested ten “illegal aliens,” claiming the group included “multiple illegal aliens who committed felonies by illegally re-entering the U.S.”

However, Solomon cast doubt on the Department of Homeland Security’s statement, saying it lied when it said that it notified the Jersey City Police Department (JCPD) of ICE’s operation in advance.

Solomon ultimately condemned the arrests as ICE profiling and detaining community members “simply based on the color of their skin.”

“We demand that [ICE] get out,” he said. “They never come back into that style of indiscriminate targeting ever. And we are committed to our sanctuary city policies, which state that we do not use city resources and personnel to aid and assist ICE unless they have a signed judicial warrant.”

Jersey City Ward D Councilmember Jake Ephros confronted ICE officers in a viral video posted to Instagram as they arrested one of the detainees at a local light rail stop on Sunday. In the video, one ICE agent told Ephros, “Listen, there’s nothing you can say is going to prevent us from doing our job.” 

When Ephros asked the agent if they had a warrant, the latter said, “We don’t need a warrant, bro. Stop getting that in your head.”

In an interview with New Jersey Urban News, Ephros stated that the agents refused to provide any rationale for the arrest. He also said these agents profiled two other individuals “based on fairly discriminatory and xenophobic metrics,” such as their skin color and accent.

According to the New Jersey Department of Human Services, ICE agents aren’t required to have a signed judicial warrant to enter public spaces, including public transportation stops. Nevertheless, Ephros denounced their actions, expressing anger over ICE raids targeting Jersey City residents.

“I think this flies in the face of the values that we have pretty clearly in the Constitution,” said Ephros. “We can’t just have federal agents, the government going around profiling people and kidnapping them. I think that’s really unacceptable.”

A week before the ICE arrests, Solomon signed an executive order on Jan. 23 designed to strengthen protections of immigrant residents. 

The legislation bans the use of city-owned or city-controlled property, such as parking lots and garages, for immigration enforcement operations. Jersey City will also partner with pro-immigrant nonprofits to conduct “Know Your Rights” outreach and provide legal support.

In addition, this executive order will require city employees, including police, to complete training on how to legally cooperate with and respond to federal immigration authorities. Solomon said that his administration is working closely with Jersey City’s acting public safety director, Anthony Ambrose, and JCPD chief Robert J. Kearns in providing this training.

Despite passing this executive order, following the ICE arrests on Sunday, Solomon told New Jersey Urban News that his administration is searching every possible way to maximize protections of immigrant residents “within the limits of the law.”

Solomon also explained that, since NJ Transit has its own police force, it will hold direct responsibility for “some”, if any, additional protections at public transit stops in Jersey City. He also encouraged city residents to trust local police for protection against ICE, which he said is “destroying any form of trust that would have been built among immigrant communities and law enforcement.”

Ephros stated in an interview that he plans on “pressuring” NJ Transit to state that “ICE should not be allowed or is not allowed” on NJ Transit property, which includes light rail stations and NJ Transit buses. Ephros also said he is looking into whether or not a mask ban can be imposed on federal immigration agents operating in Jersey City.

Ephros encouraged Jersey City residents to get involved with local groups conducting rapid response work for immigrant communities in New Jersey, including Estamos Unidos, Spirit of Liberation (SOL), and the DIRE Hotline.

As Solomon continues to work toward enacting stronger protective laws for Jersey City, he and his administration have called on ICE to end its harmful enforcement operations in the community.

“If you are seeing a masked individual with unclear markings on who they are, throwing people into unmarked vehicles, what are you to think is happening,” said Solomon. “And it pits local law enforcement and federal law enforcement against each other in situations that can become extraordinarily dangerous. So the core way to stop that is for ICE to get out of Jersey City.”