Immigrants and immigrant rights advocates find themselves battling not only executive orders and policy directives that have resulted in more raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but anti-immigrant sentiment that has struck fear in the community.
ICE has announced it will reopen Delaney Hall in Newark as a 1,000-bed immigrant detention center while the state Legislature has failed to consider the Immigrant Trust Act for a vote. That bill would codify a directive from the state attorney general limiting cooperation protocols between local and federal institutions.
“We have to have the people that are in power read the ITA, to be part of this process,” said Ana Paola Pazmino at a recent rally at the Elizabeth Detention Center. “Delaney Hall is not opening just because Trump started. This is happening because all the politicians have done nothing within this past year. And it’s making us angry now.”
One state lawmaker said local police departments should receive cash incentives to apprehend and help deport undocumented people. “I would anticipate there being close coordination with ICE, ICE letting local law enforcement know that there are illegal immigrants that need to be apprehended and then local law enforcement acting as a supplement, acting as an arm of ICE to make the apprehension,” said Assemblyman Paul Kanitra (R-Ocean).
