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Raids, protests and worry

Trump crackdown fueled tumultuous 2025 for Garden State immigrants

By: Ricardo Kaulessar
and Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... From an ICE raid in Newark in the first week of the second presidency of Donald Trump to immigrant health workers in the Garden State losing their legal status due to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, the plight of legal and undocumented immigrants made headlines in the past year. [2025]
..... Here is a look back at some of the stories hat appeared in NorthJersey.com .

ICE raids

..... In January , [2025] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a seafood company in Newark detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant. Among the people detained was a U.S. military veteran. That prompted outrage form Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who said, "this egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution." In November, [2025] there was a second raid on the same site, Ocean Seafood Depot on Adams Street.
..... Other raids have occurred across the state, including one in Dover in late February [2025] baht led to the arrest of a resident. In July, [2025] ICE raided Alba Wine and Spirits Warehousing and Distribution in Edison, arresting 20 individuals and drawing protests from immigrant rights activists.

Delaney Hall

..... In May, [2025] Delaney Hall in Newark, an Immigrant detention center run by ICE, repined after several years of being closed. This came after ICE amounted it had reached a 15-year agreement with The GEO Group to make the 1,196-bed facility the first detention center to open during Trump's second term.
..... There were protest before and after it opened over what critics called substandard conditions at the facility, such as insufficient food. Those conditions were cited as the catalyst for an escape from the facility in June [2025] by four detainees who were eventually captured.
..... It was also where Baraka was arrested by federal law enforcement in May [2025] after accompanying several Congress members on an oversight visit, with one of them, LaMonica McIver charged with trying to prevent Baraka from being arrested.

Protests

..... These were protests throughout the year over the federal government's actions toward immigrants.
..... Among them were several in Newark: protesters marched across the Ironbound section on May Day to decry the raids and detentions that have taken place across New Jersey and nationwide since Trump's return to the presidency, and called for the shutdown of detention centers in New Jersey, and immigrant advocates marched down Broad Street in September [2025] opposing the technology platform ImmigraitonOS, developed by the software company Palantir Technologies for sue by ICE to track people who plan to self-deport and target gang members and those who have overstayed their visas.
..... In July, [2025] there was an anti-ICE protest in Fairview that saw protesters struck and injured after a North Bergen woman drove her car into them, leading to her arrest. A Ridgefield man was also arrested at the same protest for allegedly spiting in multiple people's faces.
..... Various advocacy groups gathered in Jersey City in November [2025] to call for the passage of the Immigrant Trust Act and for the state to divest pension fund money from Palantir Technologies because of ImmigaitonOS.

Crackdown on Palestine protesters

..... The Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants in 2025 extended to tis pursuit of those who are connected to New Jersey who protested Israel's military excursion into Gaza.
..... Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian born in Syria and a green card holder marred to an American citizen, was arrested on March 18 [2025] in Manhattan due to his role as a spokesman and negotiator for pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University. He has been held at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth before being transported to an immigration detention center in Louisiana. Khalil was released in June. [2025]
..... Lequaa Kordia a Paterson resident who grew up in Palestine;s West Bank, and participated in protests at Columbia University, was arrested in March [2025] for overstaying her student visa. She is currently detained at a facility in Texas, even though a judge twice order her release.

Residents worried but persisted

..... Various people across the state expressed their concerns in interviews this year [2025] with NorthJersey.com about the Trump administration's polices impacting immigrants.
..... Milena Guayasamin was part of a group of volunteers in an outreach effort organized in January [2025] by the member-based immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jessey to distribute "Know Your Rights' materials to immigrants in Perth Amboy scared of ICE raids. Guayasamin a permanent legal resident originally form Guatemala, said in an interview that while she was afraid of being picked up by ICE, she felt it was essential to inform immigrants about their rights.
..... "I am definitely nervous, but I also know we have rights. Especially me, with the power I hold as a permanent resident. I know what I can do and what I offer to my community, so that's why I do it," Guayasamin said.
..... The administration;s immigration crackdown affected various sectors in New Jersey, including businesses and health care. New Jersey businesses that depend on an undocumented immigrate labor force are also feeling the pain of federal immigration policies.
..... Arturo Osorio, a professor at the Rutgers Business school in Newark, said in a story published in August [2025] that agriculture in the sate will be profoundly affected.
..... "At the end of the season, fruits might get rotten in the field because nobody can pick them," Osorio said.
..... Andy Cassagnol, executive vice president of the New Jersey region of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said in a story published in November [2025] that the mitigation crackdown will land to critical labor shortages in places like nursing homes in New Jersey. "to now be placed in a position where they could take a hit in their staff - upwards of one third of their staff in some cases - that could put them in the position of ahivng to shut their doors," Cassagnol said.

..... Staff Writer Jim Beckerman, Nicholas Katzban, Daniel Munoz and Katie Sobko contributed to this article.

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