By Jack Marflak
An anti-ICE rally drew approximately 100 people to Devon Street in Kearny on Tuesday evening, across from the entrance to Kearny High School. The demonstration was organized in response to an incident earlier that day in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested an adult.
The early morning incident took place during the start of the school day and was observed by a number of Kearny High School students. Photos appear to show two or three vehicles believed to belong to ICE and at least three ICE agents, some wearing masks, were observed taking an adult woman into custody.
Kearny Police Department officials confirmed that its dispatch desk received notification from ICE that it had taken one adult into custody. Police officials said that the notification came after the arrest and after the scene was cleared. Kearny Police officials said the department was in compliance with the NJ Attorney General’s guidelines and directives related to immigration matters.
Cardinal Collective, a local immigration-rights rapid-response group, organized the rally. The group describes itself on Instagram as a grassroots organization for immigration rights in Kearny and West Hudson County.
The rally began at 7:30 p.m. with remarks from Kearny immigration activist Gabriela Soto. Soto said that this will not be the first and only event.
“We are going to bring more awareness to why ICE is in our streets and why it’s important to have safety in our streets,” she said. “I went to KHS, and I never felt unsafe, and now ICE is terrorizing our streets, and we can’t feel safe. I demand that ICE gets out of Kearny.”
Soto’s husband, Martin Soto, was taken into custody in Kearny by ICE on Feb. 1. Soto spent eight months in immigration detention, including several months in solitary confinement after participating in a hunger strike and work stoppage at the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark.
He was later transferred to an immigration detention center in Elizabeth. On Oct. 6, he was released after a ruling by U.S. District Judge Jamel K. Semper that his continued detention was unlawful.
A leader of the Cardinal Collective, “Doc,” led the crowd in some anti-ICE chants and then spoke about local rapid response and the need for people to help monitor the streets of Kearny, Harrison, and East Newark for ICE activity.
He said: “We have been operating since March … anybody that can do this work with us; I think it’s really important, we need to hold these agents accountable.”
“More than 35 arrests by ICE have occurred already in Kearny, and this detention is not an isolated incident,” he said.
Several other people, some members volunteering with the Cardinal Collective, spoke about the morning’s arrest and described their personal experiences and growing concerns about safety in the community.
One mother, whose daughter was at the rally with her, said, “I went to Kearny High School, and I always felt safe … but to hear my daughter tell me, ‘Mom, I’m scared,’ I have to have these difficult conversations with her. Tomorrow she goes back to school. She’s going to talk to her peers about this.”
The street was not blocked off to vehicle or pedestrian traffic, but a handful of Kearny police officers were seen in front of the high school entrance. Although most of the attendees seemed to be from the local Kearny community, at least one person came from Bayonne to attend the rally holding a sign “protect children, abolish ICE.”
At the end of the rally, Cardinal Collective members and supporters handed out Know Your Rights cards, as well as a flyer with QR codes directing people to visit resources for the expansion of rights for immigrants within the community and outside the community. The flyer also encouraged participation in the upcoming midterm elections.