Federal customs agents have access to certain warehouses that store imported goods. Activists fear immigrant workers are sitting targets there. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)
Advocates say they worry immigration agents are targeting undocumented immigrants working at New Jersey warehouses that store imported goods.
Called bonded warehouses, these facilities are either owned or leased by the government or privately owned locations where companies can house imported goods for up to five years without paying duties. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is responsible for cargo security, can inspect them at any time.
As the Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to detain and deport millions of undocumented residents, immigrant advocates say customs and border agents have teamed up with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to round up warehouse workers because ICE agents can enter them without showing warrants.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials “hold the door open for ICE, and all of a sudden, people are taken away from their job sites,” said Li Adorno, an activist with Movimiento Cosecha, an organization that responds to immigration raids.
This happened most recently on Oct. 29. That was when ICE agents descended on the Savino Del Bene warehouse, a shipping and logistics facility in Avenel. Workers there were already on edge after signs were posted a few days prior describing the facility as a bonded warehouse.
“Warning,” one sign read in all caps. “Under the Customs and Border Protection laws of the United States, this bonded facility is under the custody and control of Customs and Border Protection.”
No other information was shared with workers, and many don’t speak English fluently. Federal officials said they arrested 46 workers, and advocates said the detainees were transported to detention centers in Elizabeth and Newark.
“Folks are going into work thinking that, ‘I’m going to come home.’ Especially if they’re temp workers, they’re being assigned to a workplace, so this sign popped up a few days before, and workers were unaware,” said Viri Martinez of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, who arrived at the warehouse shortly after the raid started.
The arrests carried out by ICE marked the state’s third known enforcement operation at a bonded warehouse. Another 13 workers were detained at a raid in Edison on Aug. 20 at the Smart Supply Chain warehouse, and 15 people were detained on July 8 at Alba Wine and Spirits in Edison.
Immigrant advocates fear that many of the workers at these warehouses don’t know they are taking jobs at facilities that are controlled in part by federal agents. Some of the employees are temporary workers assigned to the warehouses by staffing agencies.
The advocates say they have identified at least 600 bonded warehouses across the state, in port cities like Elizabeth, Newark, and Bayonne, and in towns like Cranbury and Edison.
People are taking whatever job is available if they have families to support … I think economic survival overrides the fear
– Sally Pillay, First Friends board member
Roughly 475,000 undocumented immigrants are estimated to live in New Jersey. And 1 in 4 residents is an immigrant, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Immigration raids at bonded warehouses are not new. Under President Obama, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees customs and immigration agents, said joint operations between 2005 and 2008 led to the detention of more than 350 undocumented immigrants.
Sally Pillay, a board member of Kearny-based immigration advocacy group First Friends, said she believes federal agents are using their ability to make unannounced inspections of bonded warehouses to help ICE “fill their quota.” Now, she said, “families don’t even know where their loved ones went.”
At the August raid in Edison, Pillay said, workers said they were told customs agents were coming in for an inspection to verify compliance with employment regulations. But immigration agents came instead, Pillay said, adding that she believes the inspection announcement was a ploy to “round up people.”
“We are very, very concerned that ICE is abusing the bonded warehouse designations,” Pillay said.
Immigration arrests and detention have surged to an all-time high under President Donald Trump. In May, the Trump administration set a quota to arrest 3,000 people a day nationwide, which translates into more than 1 million annually. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security bragged that it held a record 65,000 migrants in custody, with arrests and deportations reaching a record pace.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
After the Oct. 29 raid, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the action was part of “ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with customs and immigration regulations, safeguard the integrity of the supply chain, and verify that warehouse operators are adhering to all applicable security requirements.”
Calls to the warehouses on Tuesday went unanswered.
Pillay thinks protections granted by the state temporary workers’ bill of rights could help here. That’s a law that requires staffing agencies that arrange employment for third-party companies to provide basic information to temporary workers ahead of their shifts.
While the law doesn’t require staffing agencies to inform workers if they’re being assigned to a private warehouse overseen by customs and border agents, activists allege workers don’t know which warehouses they’re assigned to until they show up that morning, and because of that, some workers don’t know they could be taking jobs where federal agents could be present.
“The big gap is that agencies are not providing the information to workers for the warehouses, and we’re trying to raise the awareness to people so they know,” said Adorno.
While some workers without documentation are unaware that working at a bonded warehouse could increase the chances that they get detained and deported, others know and take the risk because they need to care for their families, Pillay said. Undocumented immigrants are often fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, she added.
“People are taking whatever job is available if they have families to support. Rent at home is high. They are sending money back home. So I think economic survival overrides the fear,” she said.
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