NJ's Largest City Bans ICE From Launching Warrantless Raids On Municipal Property

NEWARK, NJ — New Jersey’s largest city has banned ICE from carrying out raids on municipal-owned property without a warrant or other “legitimate purpose.”

Earlier this week, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka signed an executive order that restricts U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from using city-owned property, facilities or resources for “unconstitutional civil immigration enforcement actions.”

“This executive order says that ICE cannot use our space to stage operations to promote the catching and detaining of other human beings – because no human being is illegal,” Baraka said.

“We’re not slave catchers,” he added.

According to the mayor’s office, some highlights of the executive order include:

• WARRANTLESS RAIDS - “The executive order outlines key prohibitions that ban the staging of ICE operations on city property, and entering city buildings without a legitimate government purpose or necessary judicial warrant or judicial order.”
• REPORTING ICE ACTIVITY - “The order also requires city employees to report to their department director any observed unconstitutional wrongdoing by ICE agents within city limits. Department directors are to enter information reported on the state portal established for that purpose by Gov. Mikie Sherrill.”
• WELCOMING CITY - “The order further strengthens a 2017 executive order establishing Newark as a Welcoming City with language that prohibits its police division from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in any form whatsoever.”

The executive order took effect immediately after Wednesday’s signing. Watch footage of Baraka speaking about the order here, or view the video below.

The signing took place on the same day of a crash that sent three juveniles to the hospital, which was sparked when a driver tried to flee ICE agents.

Federal authorities alleged that the driver – who was previously charged with receiving stolen property – tried to evade arrest by ramming his vehicle into federal law enforcement vehicles. “Three children were taken to the hospital as a result of this illegal alien dangerously fleeing authorities,” an ICE spokesperson said.

Advocates are painting a different picture of the encounter, which took place just a few days after a historic blizzard left Newark’s roadways clogged with snow.

“What the nation watched happen in Minneapolis is not a ‘what if’ scenario for Newark,” an immigration advocate urged, “It is simply a question of ‘when?’”

>> READ MORE: Outcry Continues In Newark After ICE Car Chase; Feds Blame Driver For Crash That Hospitalized 3 Kids

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