ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Will ICE be using its new office in Essex County to hold immigrant detainees? Will any armed federal agents be operating from the premises? The owners of the property say “no,” but advocates say that a lot of unanswered questions – and fears – linger in the community.
Earlier this year, Wired.com reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to lease space at 5 Becker Farm Road in Roseland, an affluent suburb in North Jersey. The office park has tenants that include a law firm, a pediatric health care provider and a local nonprofit.
The four-story building was sold to Aresco Management of Hauppauge, New York for $16 million in 2021. Its owner is listed as Sixpad Realty LLC in Hauppauge.
A spokesperson for Aresco Management previously told Patch that ICE will be using the office for legal services. There will not be any operational component, he said.
The office will provide space for up to 40 attorneys and a handful of paralegals, spokespeople told NJ Advance Media.
Advocates have been questioning these claims, however – and they plan to hold a protest on Saturday, April 25 to make their voices heard.
The rally is scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of Roseland and Harrison avenues. Organizers say the demonstration will be a “non-violent and peaceful action.” Learn more here.
According to members of NJ 11th for Change – which is helping to spearhead the rally – local residents remain worried that Aresco “has an obvious financial interest in accepting ICE’s assurances at face value.”
During a recent organizing session, nearly 30 Roseland residents and community activists raised several questions they say remain unanswered:
Advocates also said they remain concerned the office might potentially be used as an impromptu holding space for detainees – despite assurances from the property owners and federal officials such as former Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who previously said that ICE doesn’t detain immigrants in field offices.
It’s a worry that other advocates have expressed since the agency began expanding under President Donald Trump’s second term.
A recent analysis by The Guardian found that U.S. immigration officials have been violating federal policy and detaining people in small, secretive holding facilities at ICE offices for days or even weeks at a time.
In Burlington, Massachusetts, community advocates have been alleging that immigrants are being held in cells for days at an ICE field location inside an otherwise featureless office park.
When contacted about the Roseland office in New Jersey, an ICE spokesperson previously told Patch that the agency does not confirm office locations, alleging that there has been a steep spike in death threats and assaults against its officers.
The agency shared a boilerplate statement that it has also given other news outlets.
“Is it really news that when a federal agency hires more personnel that they need more space?” a spokesperson asked. “Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, we have an additional 12,000 ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country. That’s a 120 percent increase in our workforce.”
A spokesperson for Aresco Management told Montclair Local that ICE will not be bringing people they arrest to the office, or adding holding rooms.
“People have embellished the story to make it far worse than it is,” he said. “It’s not going to happen… It’s not the government’s intent and it’s not what my intent would permit, in accordance with the lease.”
However, according to the newly formed ICE Out of Roseland group, they continue to pressure Aresco to stop leasing the building to ICE – even if no detainees will be held there.
“These lawyers will be maneuvering to deport law-abiding members of our community, and to defend illegal state violence like the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” activists said.
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ICE FOOTPRINT IN ESSEX COUNTY
Essex County is already home to a major federal immigration detention center, Delaney Hall in Newark, which was the first to open under President Donald Trump’s second term. The facility’s owner, the GEO Group – one of the largest private prison companies in the nation – was awarded a 15-year contract that it valued at $1 billion to run the new detention center.
Immigration advocates have criticized the government’s deal with the GEO Group, accusing the company of profiteering from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Activists have also been criticizing other companies that are allegedly profiting from the immigration crackdown, including Palantir Technologies, a Colorado-based company that specializes in data mining. The company is co-founded by Peter Thiel, a campaign donor to President Donald Trump and other prominent Republican politicians. New Jersey’s state pension funds currently invest in Palantir stock.
In Newark, immigration advocates recently called on the local school board to cut ties with a company that allegedly “feeds the deportation machine” by supplying food to federal detainees at Delaney Hall. Several New Jersey advocacy groups have launched an online campaign against Driscoll Foods, one of the largest independent foodservice distributors in the Northeast.
Although the focus on federal immigration enforcement has ramped up since Trump took office, large-scale ICE raids also took place in New Jersey during Joe Biden’s term.
The agency’s Newark field office processes federal detainees from across the state. Prior to New Jersey’s ban on ICE contracts, hundreds of people were arrested and deported from the office every month.
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