Casa Freehold To Host Black Lives Matter, Abolish ICE March

FREEHOLD, NJ – Several community groups from Freehold Township will come together on June 20 for a demonstration in solidarity for Black Lives Matter and immigrant justice

The event, titled “Tu Lucha Es Mi Lucha” (Your Struggle Is My Struggle) will begin in front of Casa Freehold on Jackson Street from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Programming will include music, guest speakers and a peaceful march through Freehold to the Hall of Records.

Topics of discussion for the rally will include racial profiling, mass incarceration and use of force policies in surrounding communities. Speakers set for the event include NAACP of Freehold President Bob Taylor, immigration attorney Joelle Lingat, executive director of Lazos America Unida Teresa Vivar and a representative from Black Lives Matter Freehold.

"We will stand in Freehold to make a public commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement,” Cameron Costanzo of Casa Freehold, an immigrants’ rights advocacy organization, said of the event. “We will say what we believe – that the liberation of immigrant workers is inseparably tied to the struggle for Black lives.”

Organizers also aim to make immigration justice a topic of conversation, namely the association between local police forces and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

“When we struggle against immigration detention we know that we are also struggling against mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex that turns people into dollar signs,” said Rita Dentino, the executive director of Casa Freehold. “When we struggle against ICE raids we know we are also struggling against an out of control police state. These are all forms of violence that oppress black and brown people.”

Sponsors of the program include Black Lives Matter Freehold, Casa Freehold, Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War, Close the Camps NJ, DIRE (Deportation and Immigration Response Equipo), ICE Free NJ, Green Party of New Jersey, Hoffman for Senate 2020, Jews Against ICE NJ, Lazos America Unida, New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees, New Labor, Never Again Action NJ and Pax Christi New Jersey.

For more information and updates, visit the event Facebook page.