Latest ICE Arrests In Essex County Add To Growing List

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Federal immigration agents reportedly made appearances in Montclair and Bloomfield on Monday, adding to a growing list of ICE activity that has taken place in Essex County this year.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained four people on Elm Street near Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, which is located near an elementary school, Montclair Local reported.

Video footage posted on social media shows several agents pulling a person out of a pickup truck near a gas station while making an arrest.

Meanwhile, ICE agents were also seen Monday in Bloomfield.

According to the Bloomfield Immigrant Justice Network, federal immigration agents apprehended at least one person. The person’s vehicle was left behind at the scene; community members are working to return it to relatives.

The group shared a video taken at the scene of the arrest, which shows multiple agents handcuffing a person near a work van with open doors.

Both towns have seen repeated ICE activity – and anti-ICE protests – so far in 2026.

Two employees at Raymond’s on Church Street in Montclair were among six people who were detained by federal immigration agents on the morning of Aug. 19. The workers were reportedly on the way to their jobs at the time. ICE said the detentions were part of “routine immigration enforcement” being conducted in the area. All of the detainees are accused of unlawfully entering the U.S., authorities said.

The incident sparked a protest in support of the detainees near the area where the workers were taken into federal custody.

Nearby in Bloomfield, community members held a vigil at the Historic Park on the Green that week to protest the federal immigration crackdown. Attendees hoisted candles and gave speeches, calling for the defunding of ICE and the closure of Delaney Hall, a federal immigration detention center in Newark that hold detainees from across New Jersey.

• Related: Anti-ICE Protesters Rally In Montclair, Bloomfield After Latest Arrests

Other recent ICE activity has included:

• In June, federal immigration agents were seen in the Municipal Plaza parking lot behind Bloomfield Town Hall, but left the area after being told about the township’s new restrictions about ICE and municipal property, an official said.
• In June, a chef at a restaurant in Montclair was detained by ICE while visiting a shopping center in Buffalo, New York.

ICE IN ESSEX COUNTY

Montclair and Bloomfield aren’t the only Essex County towns that have seen visits from ICE in recent months.

In July, several landscapers were arrested on Rutgers Street and Van Reyper Place in Belleville. Each was accused of being “unlawfully present in the United States.”

• Related: ICE Arrests Landscapers In Essex Suburb; Deportations Planned, Feds Say

In August, federal immigration agents recently arrested four people in the South Orange-Maplewood area, including two roofers, a handyman and the sous chef at a local restaurant.

• Related: ICE Arrests Roofers, Chef, Handyman In Essex County

Several high-profile arrests have also taken place in the state’s largest city, Newark – which also saw an ICE-related car chase last winter.

• Related: Outcry Continues In Newark After ICE Car Chase; Feds Blame Driver For Crash That Hospitalized 3 Kids

Homeland Security officials, including Secretary Markwayne Mullin, have insisted that ICE is going after some of the “worst of the worst” criminals in the nation.

“Every day, the patriots of ICE are working to target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our country,” he said Thursday, sharing a list of recent arrests that have been taking place across the U.S.

• Related: Feds Criticize Essex County For Not Cooperating With ICE, Offering Immigrants 'Sanctuary'

Advocates and family members of ICE detainees have pushed back against the claim that most of them are “criminals,” however.

In April, data research organization Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reported that out of 60,311 people held in ICE detention across the nation, about 70.8 percent had no criminal conviction before being apprehended – and many of those who do were convicted only of minor offenses such as traffic violations.

• Related: Another Essex County Town Will Limit Cooperation With ICE
• Related: ICE Office In Essex County Suburb Sparks Outcry

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