NEWARK, USA — Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, officers detained a U.S. citizen and military veteran during a raid in Newark on Thursday, January 23, 2025, prompting outrage from local officials and raising questions about the legality of the operation.
The raid, which took place at Ocean Food Depot, a seafood wholesaler and restaurant, involved 10 to 12 ICE agents who arrested three individuals, including a Puerto Rican warehouse manager. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka criticised the operation as a “plain violation” of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” Baraka said in a statement.
“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorised.”
Allegations of Racial Profiling
Ocean Food Depot owner Luis Janota recounted the events of the raid, noting that ICE agents appeared to focus their scrutiny on Hispanic workers.
“I asked [the agents] what documentation they were looking for, and they said it was a license or a passport. I thought, who walks around with a passport?” Janota told PIX11 News.
Janota added that ICE agents did not ask for documentation from him or his white employees, but targeted Hispanic workers instead.
“One of the guys was a military veteran, and the way he looked to me was because he was Hispanic. He is Puerto Rican and the manager of our warehouse,” Janota said.
“It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people.”
Legal Concerns
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and legal experts have highlighted that ICE officers must adhere to the Fourth Amendment, which requires them to have a valid judicial warrant to enter private property or employee-only areas.
ICE’s own guidelines emphasise that everyone is entitled to due process.
An ICE spokesperson defended the agency’s actions, stating that officers may request identification to verify individuals’ identities.
However, they did not address allegations that the officers lacked a warrant or whether they entered restricted areas of the business.
Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Representative LaMonica McIver, whose district includes Newark, expressed concern over the raid. Both lawmakers stated they had reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for further clarification.
“We need answers about how this could happen,” Booker wrote on the social media platform X.
— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) January 24, 2025
Trump’s Deportation Push
The raid comes just days after President Donald Trump launched his second-term promise of mass deportations, aiming to expel up to 10 million undocumented immigrants.
On Thursday, ICE reported 538 arrests and 373 detainers in its initial operations.
Critics have noted that at this rate, it would take decades to meet Trump’s stated goal, excluding incidents of U.S. citizens mistakenly caught in the sweeps.
Trump’s policies have also extended to immigrants who entered the U.S. legally. The acting DHS secretary signed a memo on Thursday granting ICE the authority to deport approximately 1.4 million individuals who entered the country temporarily and believed they were following legal pathways.
Critics have called the memo legally questionable and a betrayal of those who adhered to established rules.
Community Outrage
Mayor Baraka’s statement reflects broader concerns over the human cost of the administration’s policies.
“This is not about protecting public safety—it’s about targeting and terrorising vulnerable communities,” he said.
The incident has intensified scrutiny of ICE’s practices and the impact of Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda on American citizens and immigrants alike.
As legal challenges mount, questions remain about how such operations align with constitutional protections and the values of a nation built on immigration.
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (@ICEgov) January 24, 2025
