After days of what appeared to be increased U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement activity in South Orange and Maplewood, local activists decided on Tuesday night to organize a protest for Wednesday morning, August 12.
The results: Dozens of residents with makeshift signs lining the four corners of Springfield Avenue and Prospect Street in Maplewood, eliciting a chorus of honking horns from passing motorists.
“We were hoping that we could actually disrupt something,” said organizer Melissa Citro, noting that much local ICE activity had been taking place on Springfield Avenue where workmen visit supply stores.
“Earlier in the spring when as I was organizing an event, others warned me that they are expecting a surge this summer and that is what’s panning out,” said Citro, who said that she thinks President Trump thinks “ICE is a symbol of his strength … even though the polls consistently say that the public doesn’t support this.”
Citro hopes that there will be a substantial backlash to the surge. “People are eager to get out here. … The idea is to disrupt this illusion of normalcy.” She added, “The sooner we get out in the street, the sooner we can mitigate some of the harm that’s been done.”
Rev. Danny Yang, Pastor of Morrow United Methodist Church in Maplewood, said that he was attending the rally “because Jesus said, ‘You welcomed me when I was a stranger,’ and I follow Jesus.”
Rev. Danny Yang with Bruce Bowen of Maplewood.
Yang said that Morrow Church had also been helping to support families waiting outside of Delaney Hall in Newark to visit detained family members, working with Matt Bloom of SOMA Community Cares.
“They wait to visit. They have to come really early,” said Yang.
Protest organizer Michael Paris held a large American flag and shared a story of its origins.
U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis “was flying this flag on Veterans Day off the Verrazzano Bridge and she thought the Political Science Department at the College of Staten Island should have it and I was Chair of the department, so she sent it to me ‘with deepest love and respect, Nicole’.”
“This is a MAGA flag,” said Paris, referencing Malliotakis’s support for the Trump administration’s immigration policies. “Isn’t that great?”
“We always want to fly the flag and fly it properly because we’re the ones who are for the flag and our values,” said Paris. “This is horrible stuff going, ruining ordinary peoples’ lives.”
Paris referenced the story of Omar Alvarez, sous chef at Perla Seafood & Raw Bar in Maplewood who was arrested by federal agents on August 7. Perla owner/chef Matthew Chappina has created a GoFundMe for Alvarez and wrote, “He has been on his path to citizenship and has been following every lawful step in the process.”
Village Green reached out to the ICE Newark field office for more information on Alvarez’s arrest, as well as several others. Newark Outreach responded, “I cannot provide this information to you. Please provide alien registration number (A#).”
Joining the protesters on August 12 were Maplewood Township Committee candidate John Sullivan, Mayor Vic De Luca, Essex County Commissioner at Large candidate and former Deputy Mayor Deb Engel, and Congresswoman Analilia Mejia (NJ-11).
“I felt a moral obligation to take part in today’s protest,” said Sullivan. “To show that we support our immigrant neighbors. Immigrants are the lifeblood of the founding of our nation and continue to be the foundation we need to support our values. The need to give a voice of those silenced by our government cannot be overstated.”
Mejia said she attended the rally because “I am a member of this community and I’m equally appalled at the idea that we have armed agents that are terrorizing our community.”
“There is a right way in which we should enforce our immigration laws, but to have masked agents who swarm cars, who chase individuals, and make our entire community less safe, is not the way to go,” said Mejia.
Listen to Village Green’s interview with U.S. Rep. Analilia Mejia here:
Mejia said she is seeing a surge of ICE activity across Morris County, Essex County, and the parts of Passaic that she represents. “I’m hearing more terror from the immigrant community, more outrage from the broader community, and, again, I live here too, and so I came out, actually, to join forces with folks.”
Asked what further action could be taken, Mejia said, “First and foremost, it is our collective obligation to make sure that we are calling out the overreach of our government. So these kind of actions are important. They keep the spotlight on the egregious activity that’s happening. In Congress, as you know, without the majority, we have limitations, but we could still conduct oversight visits. We could still demand transparency from the administration. And, thankfully, we were working with the governor to make sure that when egregious events, like the death of Mr. Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, happen that they’re totally investigated.”
“Again, if we allow government to mistreat anyone that has the protections of our Constitution, to strip them of their due process and equal protection rights, you and I lose them, too.”
