Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 500 people on Thursday, including during a raid on a worksite in New Jersey that a local official called an “egregious act” that violated the Fourth Amendment.
Newark Mayor Ray Baraka said ICE officials detained undocumented residents as well as citizens during a raid on a business, without producing a warrant. One of the people detained, Baraka said, was a U.S. military veteran “who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.”
“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…’” the mayor said in a statement. “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized.”
An ICE spokesperson defended the arrests in a statement to media outlets, saying the agency may encounter some 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.”
“This is an active investigation and, per ICE policy, we cannot discuss ongoing investigations,” the spokesperson told Axios.
The agency wrote it arrested 538 people and detained 373. It’s unclear where those arrests took place.
President Donald Trump had foreshadowed an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system and quickly moved to sign a raft of executive orders targeting migration along the southern border with Mexico. The Pentagon is sending 1,500 active-duty troops to the border to bolster those already there to support the U.S. Border Patrol. And the White House recently canceled travel for thousands of refugees that had already been approved to come to the country.
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” has also promised to carry out the president’s pledge to begin the largest mass deportation event in U.S. history from the first day of the new administration. The White House threatened this week to take legal action against any officials who resist enforcement efforts, although many Democratic mayors and governors have said they will not assist ICE agents.
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White House press secretary shared details of the arrests later Thursday, describing those detained as “illegal immigrant criminals” linked to a Venezuelan gang.
“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway,” she wrote on X. “Promises made. Promises kept.”