A month after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an undocumented immigrant in Princeton, concerned community members are still seeking answers — and are organizing to find them.
On the morning of July 10, ICE arrested a Princeton resident in what they described as “targeted operations.” Authorities identified the arrested person as a “29-year-old Guatemalan national who had been removed twice from the United States.” According to ICE, they made the arrest because the individual failed to show up for a hearing before the Princeton Municipal Court in a case where he was charged with simple assault, aggravated assault, and robbery. He is currently being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
The arrest and the events leading up to it have prompted concerns among the Latine immigrant community in town, with community members and immigrant rights’ activists voicing discontent with ICE’s presence in Princeton, viewing the agency as an intimidating presence in a town normally welcoming of immigrants. They also took issue with tactics used during the arrest, alleging that agents were driving at unsafe speeds and racially profiling people on the streets.
Reverend Erich Kussman, a pastor at St. Bartholomew Lutheran Church and a faith leader with Faith in New Jersey, told the ‘Prince’ that he and others observed ICE agents stopping and questioning multiple individuals.
“Talking with the other organizers that were there, more stories came to light. How they were literally running up to like 15 different folks asking them for credentials, IDs” he said. “If you got a target, why are you harassing 15 [people]?”
Kussman, whose church is in Trenton, traveled to Princeton that morning after hearing about the arrest from other activists in the area. Fatima Mughal — a founding member of Princeton Mutual Aid, an organization established during the COVID-19 pandemic to help meet residents’ needs, also traveled when she heard the news.
“As soon as I found out, I came over,” Mughal told The Daily Princetonian. “We wanted to make sure that anyone they did go up to understood what their rights were, so we were just keeping an eye out.”
“At that point, we weren’t aware of any more ICE agents walking on foot, asking people questions,” she noted. She then speculated that because “enough people had recorded what they were doing, they stopped going up to people and profiling, and instead, they were in their cars surveilling.”
In the days following the arrest, community members’ frustration spurred them into constructive action. In the following days, various local organizations and people came together to organize a response, led by Resistencia en Acción NJ, a local immigrant rights nonprofit formerly known as Unidad Latina en Acción. They hosted “Know Your Rights” workshops and other outreach events.
On July 16, a new coalition of organizations held a press conference in front of the Princeton Public Library. It was here that, for the first time, various local and national organizations involved — Resistencia, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), and Faith in NJ, among others — officially united under a new name: ICE Out of Princeton.
At the press conference, Lauren Wilfong, a lawyer with NDLON, said, “We will stand by this community as it unites to ensure the safety of all members of this community, including immigrant workers. Regardless of how polarized or vitriolic the national immigration debate becomes, NDLON will not stand by as day laborers’ federal and civil rights are under threat.”
Mughal and others were also frustrated at the local government and police, who they said inadequately responded.
“There are limitations in what [local government and police] can do,” Mughal said. “But we were seeing nothing. We were seeing no effort. We were seeing no support and no help.”
Local officials have repeatedly emphasized that local government actions are limited.
“We cannot tell ICE what they can and can’t do. So if ICE decides to come to Princeton, we cannot stop them,” Mayor Mark Freda told the ‘Prince.’
“One of the most important things to me is that people in our community need to understand that they can trust us, they can trust the town and [government] departments if they need help. That’s the big critical message,” he added.
Activists and community members have nonetheless been wary of the city’s response.
“I think that trust is something that is not just given. It is something that is earned and that goes both ways,” Mughal said.
Ana Paola Pazmiño, director of Resistencia en Acción, told the ‘Prince’ that the man facing deportation is not looking to fight his case upon returning to Guatemala.
“He wants to go home … And so, there’s nothing more we can do, right? We can’t force him to want to do this.”
Still, she is leading the organizing efforts in the months to come, and does not see the ICE Out of Princeton movement as going away anytime soon.
“[ICE Out of Princeton] is going to go above and beyond to understand and talk about anti-immigrant policies that are going to come up, and because of our political season and the political elections that are coming up, we foresee that we might have more of these, not only in Princeton. So we need to be vigilant too of how these anti-immigrant policies are going to affect us,” Pazmiño said.
Christopher Bao is an assistant News editor and the accessibility director for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Princeton, N.J. and typically covers town politics and life.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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