The Hudson County Board of Commissioners want building security training and more CCTV cameras due to the increasing presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in James J. Braddock Park in North Bergen.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
At Thursday’s meeting, Anna Grojec, a North Bergen resident and member of Estamos Unidos brought her concerns to the board over the heavy ICE presence at Braddock Park.
This is happening despite Hudson County Executive Craig Guy’s executive order banning ICE and Border Patrol from utilizing county-owner property for federal immigration enforcement – at least without a warrant – among other actions taken at the county level.
“I live in North Bergen, about five minutes from Braddock Park. I walk there multiple times a day most days, and as such, it’s impossible not to notice the heavy ICE activity in and around the park,” Grojec said.
“Our neighbors are being stopped being stopped solely on the basis of how they look, the color of their skin, and they’re being abducted.”
According to Grojec, there is a lot of activity at the bus stop at the top of the park near Bergenline Avenue and 90th Street, where many arrested are being documented by Estamos Unidos and other immigrant advocates.
“I’ve seen videos of ICE agents chasing people into and through the park, seeing traffic, having to halt suddenly, and videos of ICE agents pinning people to the ground in the park,” Grojec declared.
She said ICE even showed up at the North Bergen High School graduation on June 26th, turning a “day when people were supposed to be celebrating their children” into one when they were “forced to flee in fear.”
“I’m just here to bring your attention to this and ask what the county is doing or planning to do to protect our community. What protocols does the sheriff have in place? Was the Sheriff’s Department aware of what was happening at graduation?” Grojec questioned.
She added that the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office has a “clear presence” at Braddock Park, but are usually located toward the interior of the park, as opposed to the bus stop near the top of the park, or other locations where detainments are happening.
Grojec was echoed by West New York resident Mark Bloomberg, who noted that a couple of days prior to the commissioners meeting, a man in a wheelchair was rescued from the lake in Braddock Park.
“There was easily 30 responders on site. That’s not digging at them in any way. They did their job. I’m not throwing any shade here, but I’d imagine if a child was reported missing from a playground in Braddock, there would be a similar response. Same thing goes if there’s actually a kidnapping that happens in progress,” Bloomberg expressed.
“So I’m wondering where is the response when federal agents, or just masked men that we don’t really know who they necessarily are – we’re just guessing – are abducting residents in the park. Where’s the sheriff?”
Bloomberg said that, on July 14th, ICE was seen chasing a man in the northwest corner of the park, and the day prior, three people were abducted as well.
On July 3rd, ICE pulled 30 people off the streets of Hudson and Bergen counties while being paid extra for working on a federal holiday (when it was recognized since July 4th was on a Saturday).
Further, on June 29th, an ICE vehicle was parked at one of the entrances to the park near one of the bus stops, and three days before that, Bloomberg confirmed ICE was present at North Bergen High School graduation in the park.
“If you haven’t heard, ICE is everywhere in the county. So when these things happen in the park, where is the sheriff and have they witnessed any of these? Can they change their patrolling protocols?” Bloomberg added.
“And let’s not have a side discussion, let’s discuss it publicly so the public can hear about it.”
Bloomberg asked for sheriff’s officers to, instead of sitting in their cars in parking lots in the interior of the park, monitor the entrances and bus stops – especially during rush hours – where ICE is picking people up while waiting for public transit on their way to work.
In addition, Bloomberg wanted to know the county’s plans if ICE shows up at public events on county property like flag raising and concerts, noting that the security officers at 567 Pavonia Ave. told him upon entrance that day that they did not receive any ICE training.
“You guys passed a resolution up. They looked at me like, ‘What are you talking about training? We haven’t gotten it yet.’ You guys, something’s not happening here,” Bloomberg declared.
Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) noted he shared Bloomberg’s concerns over security personnel lacking any procedure to respond to ICE despite apparent existing protocol put out by the county Sheriff’s Office and asked the administration when that would happen.
“Passing a policy makes you feel good, but if you don’t implement the policy then you raise a false sense of awareness or security that doesn’t exist,” O’Dea said.
In addition to probing the implementation of the anti-ICE executive order, O’Dea suggested the installation of closed-circuit television cameras installed in the parks to monitor the situation with federal immigration authorities.
He suggested the county should monitor those cameras frequently and record any aforementioned incidents in the park, including at the outskirts of the park and near the bus stops.
O’Dea also recalled driving to work in Elizabeth one day when he saw about seven ICE agents surround an individual in there vehicle, prompting him to pull over and exit his vehicle to observe although he said the agents eventually left.
“It was a frightening thing to watch this one woman who was darker skinned standing with seven individuals around her and they didn’t look like your typical law enforcement officers. They could have looked like just a gang of individuals that were armed and dangerous. So this is real. This isn’t going away tomorrow. And I think everything you said is true,” he continued.
“I believe that if we are committed to do the things that we said we are, I think we’ve got to now take the next steps to do that. If it’s additional CCTV to look at areas where these are regularly occurring, maybe they’ll occur less if they know there’s somebody watching them and there’s recorded footage of what they’re doing.”
O’Dea was confident his plan for CCTV cameras would work, contrasting the lack of incident in the camera-riddled Lincoln Park.
Bloomberg concluded it was important have a dialogue on this and include law enforcement as well, emphasizing the need to have their body cameras record incidents after he said an acquaintance had their phone ripped out of their hand and their video of an encounter deleted by a federal agent.
“We need the police to record. We need to create a record so there’s accountability,” he concluded.
Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) told Bloomberg to make North Bergen police aware about the activity at the bus stops, since that falls under their jurisdiction, however, Bloomberg said he already spoke to NBPD and they said they could do nothing.
If they have nothing to hide then they have no reason to “flee”.
These two activists speak for no one and should be asked how many illegal aliens they are harboring, employing and paying. Meanwhile, when you get audited by the IRS and subpoenaed by the DOJ because your zip code is North Bergen or Fairview, consider what your local elected representatives have done to poke the bear.