South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum on Friday issued a statement regarding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in South Orange that occurred on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, in which a Paterson resident was taken into custody. The following is her statement in full:
Yesterday afternoon (10/1/26), between approximately 2:00 and 2:30 p.m., an individual was taken into custody by ICE on S. Kingman Road in South Orange.
Before I go any further, I want to thank all the neighbors in Tuxedo Park who sprang into action and notified me of what happened. Saying something when you see something is what enables our community to jump into action, and that is exactly what happened here.
As with the last time this occurred, the ICE Field Office confirmed only that an individual had been taken into custody and provided no further details. However, we were able to identify the registered owner of the vehicle, which turned out to be a resident of Paterson.
I spoke with Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, alerted him to what had occurred, and he immediately began following up with his team.
I also connected with SOMA Community Cares (Matthew Bloom and Cynthia Galeota). With the information we had, Matt confirmed through the detention facility’s commissary system at 6 a.m. this morning (I can only imagine he was sitting there hitting refresh) that the registered owner was, in fact, the individual who had been taken into custody. Matt immediately put money into his commissary account to help with phone calls and other immediate needs while he is being detained.
Rachel Salazar, a local DDDI attorney who many of you have heard me speak about (and praise), also jumped into action. She now has an appointment scheduled with him for Sunday and will evaluate his eligibility for a habeas petition filing, which we have had incredible success in previous cases.
So, that’s where we are right now.
SOMA Community Cares is hosting a fundraiser on Wednesday, October 7. I hope you will join me in attending or consider making a donation to support the incredibly important work they are doing for our immigrant neighbors and their families: https://givebutter.com/c/SOMAHoldTheIce
Thank you to everyone for continually looking out for one another. We may not be able to stop these moments from happening, but we can make damn sure that when they do, people know they are not alone.
Sheena Collum
Mayor
