Elizabeth, a New Jersey resident, waits every night for her undocumented son to return home from work, fearing the possibility of ICE encounters. Reports of increased ICE activity across the state since President Trump's inauguration have fueled anxiety within immigrant communities. While ICE officials claim that their operations are targeted, advocates are working to provide support and legal guidance to those affected by the heightened immigration enforcement.
Every evening at midnight, Elizabeth waits for her son to come home after he works his two jobs. He is undocumented. “We wait until we see the door open, to wait for him, because we feel afraid. He does try to keep calm and say that during the day he’s hiding from whatever can happen, but we always watch the door to see him come home,” she said, translated from Spanish by an interpreter.
Elizabeth is a New Jersey resident who asked that her real name not be used because of concerns for her family’s safety. She has a visa, but her son and her granddaughter are undocumented. “We have been talking, my son and I, about starting a plan, God forbid,” Elizabeth said if immigration officials show up at their door. “We have been thinking about the bank accounts and who will send our things back to us. We have to be prepared.” People have reported on social media seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers throughout New Jersey over the last two weeks since President Donald Trump took office and implemented his mass deportation plan. Some posts don’t say what officers were doing or how many sightings were of ICE officers. But the reports are contributing to confusion that drives fear throughout immigrant communities. “As frightening as it is to hear rumors of ICE being in your community, that’s the type of tactic, that’s the type of fear that ICE employs, that ICE works off of to intimidate our communities,” said Dante Apaéstegui, community response coordinator at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.New Jersey immigrant advocacy groups are working on the ground to respond to calls about ICE sightings in hopes that they can help people navigate encounters with immigration officials in real-time. ICE field offices are now required to arrest 75 people per day, according to The Washington Post, and one office is responsible for all of New Jersey. ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an interview Wednesday, New Jersey’s ICE Field Director John Tsoukaris told NJ Spotlight News that there was, but there has been a “huge uptick in operations.” Tsoukaris said ICE was focusing on those who committed crimes or who had been ordered deported but never left. “We’re not just out in the community indiscriminately looking for anyone that we think is illegal. All these arrests are targeted in terms of we know who we’re going after,” said Tsoukaris. While some advocacy groups have reported an influx of calls about ICE over the last two weeks, they are asking members of the public not to post videos of alleged ICE encounters before they can be verified and to protect the privacy of those involved. “We don’t post anything before we really confirm it’s true. We visit family members,” said Diana Mejia, founder of Wind of the Spirit. “We’re talking to the mayors and the police and trying to get the most information as possible.” Immigrant advocacy groups did not have specific numbers on the kinds of ICE encounters they were seeing but said they have continued to respond to tips they receive about ICE sightings by going to the area where ICE officials were reported. Advocates noted that in some cases, people detained by ICE already were under deportation orders. The advocates said they cannot always arrive quickly enough to help. “What we think is more helpful for us as an organization to do is have a rapid-response protocol in place to address the folks that have already been arrested and do our best to find out who they are — connect with their families, connect them with the legal service provider,” said Apaéstegui.Immigrant rights groups are asking people to provide more information when reporting ICE sightings to their organizations or on social media. Details including the time and place, the number of officers involved, and the kinds of clothing or vests officers are wearing can be helpful to advocates responding to these tips. “This helps us really connect impacted people,” said Apaéstegui. “We can scrutinize a bit further whether or not these raids or these arrests or these enforcement actions are complying with Fourth Amendment protections.” Apaéstegui said the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice is focusing on “Know Your Rights” workshops, where they teach people about their Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment protections when interacting with immigration officials and show what kinds of uniforms they may be wearing. Officers can sometimes have vests that say HSI, for Homeland Security Investigations, or ERO for Enforcement and Removal Operations. Vests can also simply say “police” or “CBP” for Customs and Border Protection. “We’re talking to community members to be very alert what it is they’re sharing, so that we’re spreading information, not panic,” said Apaéstegui.Not all ICE encounters are raids where people are arreste
IMMIGRATION ICE NEW JERSEY DEPORTATION FEAR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ADVOCACY
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