RED BANK: MORE ICE ARRESTS, AS MAYOR (AND SPRINGSTEEN) DENOUNCE RAIDS

On Monday, as officials and members of the community gathered at The Vogel for an annual celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr., phones began buzzing with reports of masked federal agents arresting several people blocks away near the Wawa on Bridge Avenue.

The arrests were the latest in a series of ICE operations in Red Bank that began in November and have become more commonplace in recent weeks. 

Several videos posted to social media show agents in vests detaining at least two men up against the exterior wall of the Wawa, a well-known shape-up location for day laborers. The videos appear to have been shot late Monday morning. 

In one video, the person filming repeatedly yells at the agents, one of whom appears to knock the phone from their hand. 

It is unclear who was arrested. Unlike local police departments, which are typically obligated by state open public record laws to provide a name and a charge for persons arrested, ICE typically provides no information on who they are arresting or why.

Only if a reporter already has the name of a person arrested, along with an alien registration number, will they typically confirm an arrest. An email sent by redbankgreen to ICE’s public affairs office seeking details on the operation was not immediately returned. 

In a video posted later in the day to Facebook, Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano, who had quickly departed the MLK Ceremony as news of the ICE operation a few blocks away broke, said several arrests had been confirmed. 

Triggiano said the Red Bank’s American Friends Service Committee immigrant rights project is working with family members of the detained to connect them with services.

Volunteers and officials were still working to confirm other possible arrests that had taken place in town, she said. 

“This is becoming not only an often-occurrence, but a daily occurrence in Red Bank,” Triggiano said. 

Triggiano thanked volunteers and citizens who have been shooting video at the scenes of recent arrests, noting such documentation is often crucial for family members to confirm who is being arrested. She stressed, too, the importance for such observers to be respectful.

“I want to thank everyone who has been respectfully, rapidly responding with the borough, using their constitutional right to ensure that we’re able to identify the people who are being taken, and I want to stress doing that in a respectful manner that keeps everybody safe.”

Triggiano also implored residents to contact Gov. Phil Murphy in support of three so-called “immigrant protection bills” passed by the legislature last week.  Monday was Murphy’s last day in office and the bills, which passed the legislature, would die if he didn’t sign them by midnight. 

Back at the MLK Day event, Mayor Billy Portman welcomed the several hundred attendees by directly addressing the arrests and describing the words of MLK as “a call to action.”

“My neighbors are being snatched off the streets of my town without any notice, without any heads up, by masked people who just disappear them,” Portman said.

Rev. Terrence Porter, pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank, speaks at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Commemorative Celebration sponsored by Pilgrim Baptist and the Parker Family Health Center. Below, Dancers with the Calpulli Mexican Dance Community perform at the celebration alongside posters depicting the life of MLK. 

(Photo by Brian Donohue)

Referring to placards placed around the stage bearing quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., Portman continued:

“I’m looking at these quotes: ‘What are you doing for others?’ ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’.

“It’s not just a celebration today,” Portman continued. “This is a call to action. This is all of our responsibility. And to be honest, I’m not sure what that means. I’m not sure what I can do. But I’m hoping this is staying int he forefront of everyone’s mind like it’s been in the forefront of mine. “

Just thirty six-hours earlier on a stage just next door, Bruce Springsteen made worldwide headlines with his own denunciation of the ICE operations in Minnesota and elsewhere. 

Appearing at the Annual Light of Day Winterfest benefit at the Count Basie Center for the Arts Hackensack Meridian Health Theater, Springsteen made the remarks as he prepared to play his song “Promised Land. (See video below.)

As reported by NJArtsnet, here are those comments transcribed in their entirety. 

This next song is probably one of my greatest songs. And I don’t want to be out of water tonight, but I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility … both to the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be. Now, right now, we are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested as it has never been in modern times. Those values and those ideals have never been as endangered as they are right now. So as we gather tonight in this beautiful display of love and care and thoughtfulness and community … if you believe in democracy, in liberty … if you believe that truth still matters, and that it’s worth speaking out, and it’s worth fighting for … if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it … if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading American cities, and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens … if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest … then send a message to this President. And as the Mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis. So this one is for you, and the memory of the mother of three and American citizen Renee Good.

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.

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