Local activism continued to take to the streets yesterday, as Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca and Committeeman Frank McGehee joined U.S. Senator Cory Booker and others at a federal detention center in Elizabeth where immigrants are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The “rally at the Elizabeth Detention Center was an example of our democracy in action,” McGehee told Village Green. “The recent executive order on immigration is in direct conflict with our founding principles as Americans. It’s important that we continue to ban together as Maplewoodians and Americans to fight for all.”
“I was very happy to see so many South Orange-Maplewood residents at the Elizabeth protest against the Trump ban on refugees and other immigrants. I will continue to resist these unconstitutional actions of the president which are designed to erode our liberties and freedoms,” said DeLuca. (See more comments from DeLuca, as well as comments from Booker, in the video below.)
See NJ.com’s coverage of the rally here.
Photos are culled from Facebook as well as emails to Village Green from readers. Videos courtesy of Dean Dafis.
This story is part of “In the Shadow of Liberty,” a year-long look at immigration in New Jersey sponsored by the Center for Cooperative Media, Montclair State University.
