On Thursday, January 23, 2025, approximately “10 or 12” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly entered Ocean Seafood Depot in Newark, New Jersey and began requesting documentation of individuals in the retail area.
“I was confused; they took three people who did not have any documentation on them,” store owner Luis Janota told PIX 11. “I asked them [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 says some were given a court date and others were immediately detained, including a military veteran. The store owner says, “he is Puerto Rican and the manager of our warehouse.”
“It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people — not every kind, because they did not ask me for documentation for my American workers, Portuguese workers, or white workers,” Janota continued.
A spokesperson for ICE did not provide additional details regarding the raid because the agency “cannot discuss ongoing investigations.” However, the spokesperson did say agents “may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark, New Jersey.”
As news of the raid began to spread throughout the area, Mayor Ras Baraka issued a statement, calling the raid “unreasonable” and “egregious.”
“This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” Baraka stated. “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized. I will be holding a press conference in alliance with partners ready and willing to defend and protect civil and human rights.”
