🚨Princeton joins joins the list of NJ towns with recent ICE raids
🚨 A 40-year-old father was detained after dropping off his child at school
🚨Lawmakers condemn ICE tactics as “terrorizing,” call for protests
PRINCETON — A Central Jersey town can be added to the list of New Jersey communities where ICE has taken people into custody.
In the past week ICE agents have detained 11 people in Morristown, at least two in Warren, Mayor Shaun Fine told Patch and one in Red Bank, according to Red Bank Green. The town of Princeton reports that two men were detained on Thursday.
A crossing guard on duty at Birch Avenue and John Street saw two suspicious vehicles approached by several individuals before it drove away. Witnesses believe the individuals are “affiliated with ICE,” according to the town.
“The municipality shares the concerns many in our community feel in response to this and similar actions. We remain committed to keeping residents informed and will continue to share verified information as it becomes available,” read a statement from the municipality. Municipal officials and police say they were not aware of the action and did not participate in any activity.
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Lawmakers condemn ICE operation as ‘terrorizing’ residents
State Sen. Andrew Zwicker, D-Mercer, said that one of those taken into custody was a 40-year-old man who had just dropped his 9-year-old son off at school. He said that the incident “kept students indoors” because “federal agents rolled into town to terrorize our neighbors.”
“There are no words powerful enough to convey my outrage and sadness. As a community is grieving at the loss of a kind and caring neighbor, ICE has shown nothing but contempt for the law and safety of our communities,” Zwicker said in a statement. “This lawless organization of poorly trained thugs is out of control.”
The Princeton public school district in a statement said there was no ICE activity at any of its schools on Thursday and “teaching and learning were not impacted.” The statement reiterated that its highest priority is the safety and well being of our students.
School superintendent Mike LaSusa told Planet Princeton the district did not cancel recess at the district’s four elementary schools “due to anything happening in the community.” The high school was not put on lockdown mode as that is reserved for threat inside a building.
The principal did have have students shelter in place so no one could leave the building which is implemented occasionally “for a variety of reasons,” LaSusa said.
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Watson Coleman: Protest ‘peacefully but loudly’
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-NJ, 12th District called on residents to “protest the illegal actions” of ICE “peacefully but loudly” and to document “the crimes being committed against our communities.” The Democrat said she has received numerous calls from constituents who are outraged “at this administration’s use of ICE as a band of armed thugs seemingly sent into communities to intimidate and harass peaceful, hardworking people.”
“The pretense that their mission is to arrest and deport dangerous criminals and gang members has been shown to be a lie. The rhetoric of this administration claiming this is about a ‘reckoning and retribution’ lays that bare,” Coleman wrote in a statement that also called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
ICE on Friday morning did not respond to New Jersey 101.5’s request for more information about the operation in Princeton.
15 people were detained by ICE in July during a raid on a workplace on Harrison Street.
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