Immigration agents conduct second raid on Newark seafood market

A masked, armed agent outside Ocean Seafood Depot during an immigration raid, Newark, NJ, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)

NEWARK — Immigration enforcement and federal officials surrounded a seafood market in Newark Wednesday and detained workers in the second raid conducted at the warehouse this year. 

It’s unknown how many Ocean Seafood Depot workers were detained during the raid that started around 8 a.m. at the market on the corner of Adams and Delancey Streets. Advocates who conduct rapid responses to raids across the state said they are starting to hear from family members who are looking for their loved ones. 

“We’re trying to confirm how many workers, if they have a case — I think everybody’s going to be checking in with their folks,” said Li Adorno of Movimiento Cosecha. “We’re going to start to piece the answers together.” 

About 40 masked agents from different federal agencies — some wearing tactical gear and holding rifles — shut down the block of Adams Street to conduct the raid. Several workers were pulled out of the depot and given red wristbands to denote they were not detained. 

Jenny Garcia, a longtime immigration activist who responded to the raid Wednesday morning, said she spoke to people who said they were zip tied before being asked about their immigration status by Homeland Security Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigations officials. 

“We’re seeing this pattern of this dehumanizing marking on who is allowed to leave the raid and who is going to be taken,” she said. 

About 12:30 p.m. the last agents pulled away in white vans and black SUVs as activists gathered on the sidewalk yelled at them to leave. 

Christine Cuttita, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Homeland Security agents “executed a court-authorized search warrant as part of an active criminal investigation involving labor operations at Ocean Seafood.” 

She declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation. U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond for comment. 

Federal officials had a warrant to conduct the Wednesday raid, unlike the first enforcement episode in January. During that raid in the first few days of President Donald Trump’s second term, several people, including a U.S. military veteran, were detained. 

Since then, immigration officials have been actively conducting raids across the state. Twenty-nine people were arrested during an August raid in Edison, and, two weeks ago, enforcement officials arrested 46 workers at an Avenel warehouse. Several of those detainees are still being held at Delaney Hall, a federal immigration jail in Newark. 

Workers waiting outside the market declined to speak with reporters Wednesday. The scene was tense between activists and some workers who said they voted for Trump and supported ICE raids at their workplace. One woman, who said her friend was taken, cried on the sidewalk as she hugged friends. 

Adorno noted there was “a lot more ICE presence this time around.” And he added that, this being the second raid at the seafood depot, some people are aware of the risk, but immigrant workers without legal status may still be taking jobs here. 

“If you may run the risk of being detained, you’re going to try to avoid any place where a raid has happened,” he said. “But the reality is that people are struggling. People need to work.” 

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a staunch advocate for immigrants who was arrested and charged with trespassing at Delaney Hall earlier this year, did not immediately respond for comment. His charges were later dropped. 

Rep. LaMonica McIver, who is facing trial over alleged assault during the scuffle outside the jail during Baraka’s arrest, said the Trump administration is “using fear as a tool.” 

“They have been doing so since Jan. 23 when they raided this same Newark market. We owe it to our neighbors to stand up for them,” she said on social media. “That’s exactly what I’ll keep doing.” 

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