When ICE Returned, Bridgeton’s Community Was Ready

As an organizer, you always have a dozen things happening at once. One moment, you're networking and searching for opportunities that could benefit your community. The next, you're rushing to alert people that ICE has been spotted in town. And sometimes, you're doing everything you can, including annoying DACA recipients to get them to show up to events that could actually help them.

For a few weeks, Cumberland County was quiet.

Almost too quiet. 

All though the silence was a blessing because it meant none of our community members were being kidnapped. It felt as if ICE had disappeared, or maybe they were simply waiting for the right moment to catch the community off guard. But what ICE didn't know was that Los Tequios had never stopped conducting active patrols.

That first Saturday on July 11th, after several long and quiet weeks, ICE returned. So did we.

Los Tequios was already on the ground. One of our responders discovered ICE agents staging on city property. The moment the responder began documenting them, the agents left. But in footage shared from another day, when ICE returned to the area, we saw that they continued using city property as a staging location.

These weren't just random locations.

City property includes places like the Bridgeton Zoo, the dog park, the basketball courts, and public parks. Many of these areas are hidden from plain sight, meaning that unless you actually go inside, you may never know ICE is there.

These were the places where ICE agents appeared to meet in the mornings before beginning their operations. They would later return to these locations to transfer people they had detained that morning into larger vehicles.

Seeing this raised an important question: Why was ICE able to use public property, owned by the City of Bridgeton, as a staging ground for their operations?

Los Tequios, alongside community members, CATA members, and local allies, came together to plan a day of action at the next Bridgeton City Council meeting. Our goal was to propose an ordinance that would prohibit ICE from staging on city-owned property.

As community organizers, Marisol Soriano and I immediately began going through our lists of contacts and inviting everyone we could. We visited small businesses throughout Bridgeton and personally invited people to attend. 

Every invitation mattered. Whether it was through a text message, a phone call, or an in-person conversation, we took the time to explain what an ordinance was and what a proposal like this could actually mean for Bridgeton.

We didn't want the community to believe that passing an ordinance would magically keep ICE out of the city. That wasn't the promise we were making.

Instead, we wanted people to understand that this was one step toward creating a city that responds to its residents. A step toward showing that when the community organizes, speaks up, and demands action, local government has the ability and responsibility to listen.

On July 21, the day of the City Council meeting, we gathered outside the Municipal Court on Fayette Street. We handed out flyers explaining the proposal and shared key points with community members before the public comment period began. That evening, we were also there to support the Bridgeton Public Library, so there was already a lot of energy in the air.

One by one, community members stepped forward to speak.

Testimonies were shared about fear, about the importance of protecting immigrant families, and about the need for the City of Bridgeton to stand in solidarity with its residents. There was a clear message throughout the evening: the community wanted support, and they wanted to know that the City was willing to respond.

By the end of the meeting, the response from the City Council was encouraging. Council members agreed that they would work hard to place the proposed ordinance on the agenda for the following month.

For us, this felt like the first step toward prohibiting ICE from using city property as a staging ground. But organizing teaches you something very quickly:

A promise is not the same thing as action.

When the agenda for the next City Council meeting was released, the ordinance was nowhere to be found. Once again, we invited our neighbors, explained why their presence mattered, and asked them to show up.

And they did.

On August 18, more than 40 community members returned to City Hall. Young people, men, women, and Black, Latino, and white residents spoke with one united voice: Enough is enough.

Every member of the City Council spoke against ICE’s actions and expressed an intention to act. The ordinance has not yet passed, but our community proved that we will not be discouraged or ignored. We will continue showing up, holding our elected officials accountable, and working to turn their promises into action.

Join us at the next Bridgeton City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 15, at 5:30 p.m. Your presence matters. Together, we can keep pushing for the protection our community deserves.

📍 330 Fayette Street, Bridgeton, NJ