Two men on their way to work were stopped on Prospect Street in Maplewood and taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and U.S. Border Patrol agents this morning.
The action happened shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Prospect between Oakview and Courter. [Village Green previously and erroneously reported that the incident happened around 11:00 a.m.]
A Prospect resident took the photo below and posted it to Facebook with this text:
FYI so we all know this is happening not just to other people in other places but in our streets to our neighbors and friends.
ICE just picked up 2 people off the street on Prospect between Courter and Oakview in Maplewood. 3 vehicles and 3 masked ICE men zip tied the 2 people, hands and feet and hustled them into the back of one of their unmarked, out of state vehicles. One Maplewood resident was very bravely verbally berating all three ICE men the entire time but we couldn’t stop them from removing the 2 kidnapped people. The Maplewood Police arrived after ICE had left.
Another local resident made a 2:30-minute video of the incident which he shared with Village Green. Village Green’s news partner, NJ Spotlight News, aired segments of the video on Sept. 9 with the sound off and the faces of the men taken blurred. Watch it here.
In the video, the 24-year-old Maplewood resident who filmed it repeatedly tells the federal agents to “Get the f— out of my town” and barrages the agents with other expletives. One agent holds pepper spray up and says “You’ll get f—ing pepper sprayed” and later says, “You’re blocking the road.” Another tells him, “Get the f— back in your vehicle” and says he will be arrested for obstruction. The Prospect neighbor who took the photo above credited the young man with “making a big scene so that all the cars stopped and then lots of people got out. And he was able to get one name.”
A screen shot of a federal agent. Prospect Street, Maplewood, NJ. September 8, 2025.
The wife of this man taken by ICE/U.S. Customs & Boarder Protection on Prospect Street in Maplewood on Sept. 8, 2025 says that no warrant was shown and that her husband has no criminal record.
According to neighbors, Maplewood Police arrived only after federal agents had left the scene. In a statement shared with media, Maplewood Mayor Nancy Adams stressed that Maplewood police are not working with federal agents.
“The Township of Maplewood reaffirms our commitment to the fair and equal treatment of all residents, regardless of their immigration status, as we did when we adopted Resolution 3-17, on January 3, 2017 that decrees that the Police Department shall adhere to the directives and guidelines of the New Jersey Attorney General with respect to the manner in which local law enforcement agencies interact with federal immigration authorities,” wrote Adams.
Read more here: Maplewood & South Orange Mayors Respond to ICE Action in Maplewood
In a previous statement, Adams explained, “The Township is following our own Resolution from January of 2017 before Trump’s first term and the AG’s Directive which means our police will not aid or assist ICE actions in our town. MPD will also not interfere with ICE, but it’s good to call the nonemergency number 973-762-1234 to alert the police when someone sees ICE in Maplewood.”
Village Green arrived on scene after 11:30 a.m. By that time, the wife of one of the detained men had arrived to collect the vehicle that the detained men were traveling in.
The wife said that she is an American-born citizen. She and her husband have been married for more than five years and have been going through the process to obtain a green card for him. He was traveling to a work site with his brother-in-law, who was also taken into custody.
Her husband was able to call her from his cell phone.
She said that she was able to speak to an ICE officer on her husband’s phone and asked him to wait for her so that she could bring paperwork showing her husband’s immigration status. “He was like, ‘He’s very cooperative. … but unfortunately we have to take him.'”
She said the ICE agent said he could not tell her where they were taking her husband.
“I asked him, where are, why are they taking him? Is there anything signed by a judge? Do they have an order of deportation? Like anything signed off a judge again. I repeated it. He was like, ‘I can’t give you the information. I don’t have the information. We have to go to the facility in order me to give you the information.’ I’m like, but can you wait for me until I get to the scene? He’s like, ‘Unfortunately I can’t because we might cause traffic.'”
The wife said she responded, “I don’t care if you cause traffic. You already caused traffic.”
A volunteer from a rapid response team working with the DIRE Hotline, (888) 347-3767, also arrived on scene after the men were taken, and was providing support to the wife. DIRE is a “New Jersey-based rapid response hotline that provides assistance to undocumented individuals and their families facing immigration and detention crises.”
The wife said that her husband had no criminal history. The only thing he had done, she said, was “cross the border in hopes of a better life.”
