Donald Trump vowed to crack down on immigration on the campaign trail, promising mass deportations and threatening repercussions for cities and communities who don’t comply with his new administration’s orders. Evidence of the new president’s hard-line stance were seen within his first week back in office as one sanctuary city was the site of a high-profile raid by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
On Thursday, Newark mayor Ras Baraka confirmed that a raid had taken place at a business in the city, adding that ICE agents detained American citizens as well as undocumented residents without producing a warrant. In a statement, Baraka said one of those detained was a “U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” with the mayor calling it an “egregious act.”
“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” Baraka said.
CBS New York reports that the raid took place at Ocean Seafood Depot, a local fish market. The owner told the network that about a dozen ICE agents arrived that morning with no prior warning, seeking his employees’ documentation. “A couple of the guys couldn’t show their identification. Three of them got arrested.” he told CBS. “Twenty-six years in business, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice executive director Amy Torres passed along more details from witnesses to NBC News:
According to the employees who stayed behind, ICE agents were “heavily armed” and entered the business with no prior announcement, blocking off entrances, exits and delivery ramps, Torres said. “They were banging down bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside. And most importantly, as the mayor said, they did all of this without being able to produce a single name or a single warrant.”
New Jersey senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said in a joint statement that they are “deeply concerned” about the reported raid. “Our offices have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to demand answers. Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,” they said.
ICE says it arrested 538 people on Thursday nationwide in a number of cities. There were also two more workplace raids in Newark on Friday, Mayor Baraka told NBC News.
This post has been updated.
