The crowd at the Youth Led March for Immigrant Justice at the Red Bank train station on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Garcia’s mother was deported in December, she said. A half hour into the rally at the Red Bank train station, she took the megaphone to address both the crowd and her mother, who was watching from abroad via a video livestream.
“I miss you very much and I know that one day we will be together again,” she said. “I want you to know that I am here mom, and I don’t want any other person have to feel what. it feels like to lose their mother or father.
Garcia was one of a half dozen teens and young adults who told stories of parents and family members being detained, deported, or simply living in fear of leaving home to go to work every day amid tightening federal immigration dragnets.
“These voices are not abstract policy debate, they’re lived experience,” organizer and Red Bank Regional High School Student Daniel Lozada told the crowd at the train station. “They’re the reason this issue is urgent and they’re the reason we are fighting today.”
The event, dubbed a “Youth-led march for immigrant justice,” drew hundreds of people to the rally at the Red Bank train station. The crowd then marched down Monmouth and Broad Streets to Riverside Gardens Park for more speeches and testimonials.
It was organized by a group of students who led a lunchtime protest on school grounds in January, along with American Friends Service Committee, Resistencia en Accion NJ, Cosecha and other advocacy groups.
Leading the march as it snaked through the streets was Red Bank organizer Julie Flores-Castillo, who was launched into advocacy by the deportation of her father when she was 14.
Besides voicing opposition to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s policies and tactics, Flores-Castillo said a main mission of the march was to “ensure that impacted families know they are not alone.”
The march comes in the wake of numerous arrests in Red Bank, and arrests of Red Bank residents in surrounding towns as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Several of those arrests have been of individuals with children in both Red Bank public schools and Red Bank Regional.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.
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