Detainees at New Jersey Immigration Prison Revolt
Protestors in NYC, June 14, 2025. Moonlightonasnowynight, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to our news segment: TL;DR of Immigration News, for when the news is Too Long and you Didn’t Read it.
This is a weekly collection of immigration-related news stories. These bite-size summaries will keep you up to date without overwhelming your inbox.
This is also the last newsletter before the first training for the Never Again Movement Building week! Do you want to be part of building the opposition to the detention and deportation machine? Sign up here.
_
The ICE invasion of LA is ongoing. In the face of it, so is incredible community solidarity
Last Friday, CA Senator Alex Padilla was handcuffed by ICE while attempting to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem a question at a press conference. After ICE manhandled him out of the press room to the hallway, Padilla was let go, and an hour later he had his own press conference where he said what many Angelenos needed to hear in that moment: “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question … I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers throughout the Los Angeles community, and throughout California and throughout the country.”
On Saturday, as 200k people marched at the no kings day protest in downtown LA, ICE was raiding the Sante Fe Springs swap meet, an open air market in a working class suburb of LA. Vendors and shoppers are trying to pick up the pieces post raid.
Clergy have been mobilizing people of faith across the city to stand up for their neighbors, and are having moments of prayer and protest outside the federal building on a weekly basis. Mutual aid organizations have been holding fundraisers to pay the rent and bills of street vendors so they don’t have to leave the house. People have been having noise protests at night in front of hotels where ICE agents are staying, and across the city ICE spotting trainings have been happening multiple times a week, with ways to link up with people in your neighborhood who have also been trained.
_
NYC mayoral candidate is arrested at immigration court after linking arms with man being detained
The federal regime continues to use the full power of the state to criminalize any opposition to the fascist disappearance machine. One of this week’s most high profile instances involves Brad Lander, NYC Comptroller and not-disgraced mayoral candidate being roughed up and handcuffed inside immigration court, when he linked arms with a man he was accompanying as ICE tried to take the man away. Lander later emphasized that he himself was fine, but that the other man did not have a lawyer and likely would spend the night in a detention center.
The people arresting Lander and the other man carried no badges nor did they identify themselves in any way. No one is exempt from ICE terror.
Our comrades at Jews for Racial & Economic Justice have endorsed Lander, as well as Zohran Mamdani, and our co-held immigrant justice working group is out at courtwatches. If you’re in New York, get involved by joining canvasses or registering your interest in the immigrant justice working group.
_
Detainees at New Jersey immigration center revolt as chaos unravels
Last week there was an… incident, at Delaney Hall in New Jersey. (This is the same place where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and then released because the regime apparently couldn’t charge him with anything.)
Detainees at the GEO Group-run private detention facility rioted, reportedly over being repeatedly denied food. They broke through what sounds like a cheaply-built wall, and a few of them escaped. Meanwhile, US citizens showed up in support of the detainees, blocking ICE reinforcements from getting to the facility. [Content warning: video in the linked tweet contains violence and disturbing language.]
Mayor Baraka’s comment provides a good takeaway: “This incident is yet another outrageous validation of the negative consequences of a federal government that believes it is above the prudence and practicality of working within legal parameters, and encourages reckless operations of its collaborators.”
_
USCIS Tightens Disability Exception Policy for Naturalization Process
The main immigration authority in the US has announced that it is narrowing disability exceptions regarding who has to take certain tests in the process of becoming a citizen. It is doing this in the name of “prevention of fraud,” but like most things this administration does with such justification, really this represents yet another attempt to make the already extremely difficult, bureaucratic, and labyrinthine process of applying for citizenship even harder. And as usual, this performative reform comes at the expense of a group of people for whom the process is extra difficult already.
While the state makes things harder for people with disabilities, one way we can fight back is by making our own actions accessible. Never Again’s Access Guide for Direct Actions is one example of this.
_
Action Items:
- Support Bail funds! One low-risk way to support immigrants and activists is to donate to bond and bail funds. Immigrant bond funds allow immigrants to await their court dates with their families and communities rather than in a cell. Bail funds help immigrants and activists who have incurred jail costs and legal fees as a result of standing up for themselves and their neighbors. Here are some great ones to support:
- National Bail Fund Network - allows you to find and support bail funds in your area
- Immigration Bond Freedom Fund
- Detained Immigrant Bond Fund
- Since ICE and the regime are continuing to go all-in on their invasion of LA, we recommend supporting the LA-based Coalicion de Autodefensa Comunitaria/Community Self-Defense Coalition
- North Carolina readers: join Carolina Migrant Network to call on governor Josh Stein to veto legislation entrenching ICE cooperation across the state. Join their letter-writing campaign here!
- Protect yourself and your community. Check out resources from the powerful organizers at the Ruckus Society and Across Frontlines about how to keep each other safe. If you're already an NAA member, you already have access to our complete virtual, password-protected Member Resource Hub. with resources on everything from action tactics to deportation defense.
- Support Never Again Action’s organizing by making a donation today. You can make a tax deductible donation via our fiscal sponsor at this link, or you can donate directly to our 501(c)(4) organization at this link.
_