In what appears to be a new tactic, federal agents who were arresting a man in Maplewood earlier this week called out the full names of bystanders who were filming the incident.
Video filmed by a Maplewood resident and shared on social media and with The Village Green shows ICE agents approaching bystanders at the scene of the arrest and addressing them by their legal names without the individuals providing identification.
At around 9:25 a.m. on Monday, September 21, ICE agents apprehended an unidentified man on the corner of Prospect Street and Revere Avenue in Maplewood.
Witnesses immediately reported the arrest to DIRE–Deportation & Immigration Response Equipo, a local group that monitors ICE activity and offers support to detainees and their families — often arriving on scene, and also reached out to SOMA Community Cares, which has been providing financial relief to immigrants in detention. ICE has been active in South Orange-Maplewood in recent months, detaining local residents and workers with no criminal records.
Maplewood resident Darnell James was driving back to his home on Revere Avenue after dropping off one of his children at a nearby preschool when saw five vehicles following a white van. Masked agents then pulled the van over and began questioning the driver.
James pulled over and began filming the agents from the driver’s seat of his car, which was parked across the intersection.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a man at Revere Street and Prospect Street in Maplewood on Sept. 21, 2026. Still from a video by William James.
James, who had his two-year-old and six-year-old in the car, asked the agents why they were wearing masks, which is against New Jersey state law (the Trump administration is challenging the law in court).
Video taken by James shows that, after handcuffing the man and loading him into a vehicle, one of the agents got into a white SUV and told the bystanders, “You all have a great day. We’ll be here for a while.”
“Terrifying and upsetting”
The ICE agent turned the SUV around and drove slowly by James’ car. The agent then used a speaker to broadcast the name of James’ wife (the car is registered in her name), and told them to return to their specific home address.
“Do you think that’s a tactic of intimidation, looking up my car and saying my wife’s name, telling me to get off the street?” James can be heard calling out to one of the agents in the video.
Witnesses said a resident of a home near the arrest was also addressed by their full name and told to go back into their house.
”They were using their full names and addresses, telling them to go back inside,” said Liz Callahan, who also filmed the arrest. “It was clear that it was being done to intimidate or suppress the community from being out and being responsive.”
The Village Green was not able to obtain any information about the man who was arrested. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to a request for more information.
A violation of law and policy
Local advocates and immigration lawyers said this was the first time they’d heard that ICE agents have used personal information in an apparent effort to deter and intimidate observers of ICE operations in South Orange and Maplewood.
Maplewood resident and immigration attorney Kate Reilly said that intimidating bystanders in this way “is outrageous.”
Reilly formerly worked for the Dept. of Homeland Security and said that agents there have access to databases that would allow them to run license plates to get people’s names and addresses.
But during her nine year tenure with the DHS, she said that “it was drilled into us that we couldn’t use them for anything outside of legitimate business purposes.”
“It is sad and scary that they have either implicitly or explicitly been empowered to use their access in this way,” Reilly said. “Just when I think I can’t be shocked more.”
Reilly cited Federal laws limiting government employee use of databases for security checks, primarily through the Privacy Act of 1974, which restricts how personal data can be accessed, stored, and shared. The penalties for violation can include criminal misdemeanor chargers for “employees who willfully disclose protected data to unauthorized parties” and civil lawsuits in which “individuals harmed by violations can sue the federal agency for damages.”
Other instances of intimidation in NJ
A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Common Cause earlier this month noted similar ICE tactics used in two instances in Morris County earlier this year.
In one incident in Gillette on August 28, 2026, a community member pulled over and started to film DHS agents detaining people, the suit says.
The bystanders asked why the agents were wearing masks. Rather than responding to the question, another DHS agent stated the person’s full name and told them to move along. When the witness continued to observe, the DHS agent again announced their full name and asked if they wanted a visit from an investigator. The agent then called out the observer’s full home address, the suit says.
Common Cause, a democracy and voting rights advocacy group, is suing several federal agencies including ICE, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for what is calls systematic intimidation and retaliation against Americans who lawfully observe and record federal immigration officers performing their official duties in public.
The lawsuit describes a pattern of intimidating tactics including using observers’ personal information, using excessive force and pursuing criminal charges and penalties.
“The intent and purpose is to have a chilling effect so that people stop observing them, stop recording them,” said Maryam Jazini-Dorcheh, vice president of litigation at Common Cause. “So that people are unaware of what is happening.”
