ICE Agents Seen In Keyport Tuesday Morning

KEYPORT, NJ — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were in Keyport early Tuesday morning, residents and the town mayor told Patch.

ICE agents were seen at 7 a.m. on Church Street at Third Street, said residents. One Keyport resident provided a video that showed ICE agents taking a single man away in handcuffs. The federal agents were wearing bullet-proof vests that read "Police HSI" (Homeland Security Investigations) and "ERO," which stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations.

Keyport Mayor Rose Araneo said she was made aware this happened, but she did not know any further information.

Another Keyport resident, a woman who lives on the block where the man was arrested, said she personally witnessed Homeland Security agents put the man into handcuffs and put him into a car. She asked not to be identified.

"I've been on this block a long time and they've been living here as long as I have," she said Tuesday. "They pay taxes. They are family people, they are not trouble makers, they are hard workers."

She said ICE agents were also in Keyport a few months ago, when they arrested another man, a neighbor she knew personally. She said it was her understanding that he had been deported.

"Everybody's freaking out on this block," she said. "These people are not dirtbags. They have families and they are hard workers."

"And I'm a Trump supporter," she added.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not confirm they were in Keyport Tuesday. But ICE was likely carrying out what they call Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which is the detention and removal of people in the U.S. who are subject to removal or are unlawfully present in the United States.

Since Donald Trump became president in January, ICE has done these ERO raids and arrests across New Jersey, including in Asbury Park, Neptune Township, West New York, Union City and Paterson. In January, ICE agents raided a seafood processing plant in Newark, taking eight people into custody.

ICE Agents 'Conducted Operations' In Asbury Park, Neptune Township (January)