ICE Enforcement in Bridgeton Empties Streets as Immigrants Flee

Streets in Bridgeton, the 6½–square-mile city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, have gone quiet as residents and organizers say aggressive ICE enforcement since December has emptied sidewalks and storefronts. “Every week that ICE has been in our area, it’s like a ghost town now. Everybody’s really scared,” said Jessica Morales, whose brother Dominguez Facundo is detained; Morales has been raising money to fight for his release.

Community leaders describe the city’s immigrant population as primarily from Mexico, with many from Central America and a growing number from Colombia, according to Jessica Culley, general coordinator of Comité de Apoyo para Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA). Culley said immigrants work in agriculture on the farms and nurseries surrounding Bridgeton, landscaping, construction and regional produce packing facilities, and that those workers and their families helped revive parts of the city after decades of manufacturing decline and persistent poverty.

Business corridors on Laurel Street and East Commerce Street, home to independently owned Mexican restaurants, grocery stores like Aborrotes and Los Puentes, Latino-owned barber shops and a clothing store advertising quinceañera dresses, have been singled out by organizers as especially affected. Organizers and supporters say Latino-run businesses have “brought life back to this struggling community” and that an exodus or prolonged hiding by immigrant workers would threaten local commerce that has relied on their customers and labor.

Local activism has followed the enforcement. More than 160 people gathered at the Aborrotes and Los Puentes grocery store parking lot on Jan. 9 for a vigil honoring Renee Nicole Good, the poet and legal observer killed during an ICE raid in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, organizers reported. The vigil, organized by CATA, Cosecha Bridgeton and the South Jersey Solidarity Collective, opened at 6:00 pm with candles, bilingual chants and a speech by Culley; volunteers distributed Know Your Rights leaflets in English and Spanish and the Cumberland County Rapid Response number, (888) 347-3767. Organizers described the event as open to those “seeking space for reflection, grief, and solidarity amid the ongoing attacks on our immigrant community.”

Residents and advocates also recounted specific enforcement incidents that have stoked fear. Culley recalled a day when Bridgeton schools delayed opening because of snow and ice and immigration agents were active in town that same day. Local reports allege that agents detained people near a Salvation Army while they waited for a food pantry to open; organizers say that incident made headlines but municipal or federal confirmations were not included in community accounts. Dominguez Facundo is one named detainee residents cite; his sister Jessica Morales is fundraising for his release.

Separate enforcement developments in Maine involve a different Cumberland County and should not be conflated with events in Bridgeton. In Maine, ICE removed detainees from the Cumberland County Jail on Jan. 22 after Sheriff Kevin Joyce publicly criticized ICE’s handling of the arrest of a corrections officer recruit. Before transfers, the jail held 64 immigration detainees and had nine new bookings in January; county officials say ICE already owes more than $1 million in missing payments, and the agency subpoenaed employment records for everyone who worked at the jail between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 23, 2026. County official Kortes said, “We’re just here to provide a service, and sometimes, they’re transferred to other facilities, which is out of our control.”

Bridgeton organizers warn that continued enforcement could reverse recent economic gains and hollow out neighborhoods where immigrant families and small businesses have been rebuilding the city. Community groups are concentrating on rapid-response outreach, legal-rights leaflets and public vigils while calling for clearer information from federal and local authorities about the scope and timing of operations.