Atlantic City Community Condemns Police Intimidation and Harassment

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Sept. 14 — Community members and immigrant-rights organizations from across New Jersey held a press conference to denounce the Atlantic City Police Department for intimidating and arresting several protesters on Saturday on Saturday, September 12, all the while ICE continues to prey upon local working class immigrant communities with impunity.

The 9/12 protest followed an incident in which ACPD officers stopped rapid-response volunteers who were documenting ICE activity and alerting residents. Organizers say ICE vehicles had been driving dangerously through Atlantic City and that police failed to intervene despite receiving reports from community members. ACPD instead stopped the volunteers following and documenting those vehicles.

According to accounts shared by participants, an individual threatened people attending the demonstration. Witnesses say organizers attempted to de-escalate the situation and asked police to intervene, but their requests went unanswered. Organizers say the department’s failure to respond to those concerns, followed by its forceful arrests of community members, deepened the very breach of trust that brought people to the protest.

Police later arrested Executive Director, Cristian Moreno-Rodriguez and charged him with obstruction of justice, alleging that he blocked an entrance to the building. Police also arrested four other people attending the demonstration, including Anthony Diaz, executive director of Newark Water Coalition, who joined the protest in solidarity with Atlantic City’s immigrant community.

Members of the ICE out of NJ collective say Saturday’s arrests reflect a broader statewide pattern of police intimidation against people supporting immigrant communities. Earlier this month, Asma Elhuni of Resistencia, another member organization of the ICE Out of NJ coalition, was also arrested while documenting ICE activity, according to the organization.

These shared experiences brought advocates from across New Jersey to Atlantic City in solidarity, united by the concern that interference with one community’s rapid response work threatens the ability of communities everywhere to protect their neighbors.

The following remarks were made by coalition members & others during today’s press conference:

“The aggression I was a victim of by the Atlantic City Police Department is no different than the aggression felt on our Black and Brown communities by ICE. The only difference is I got to go home. On paper our local governments can say that the collaboration between ICE and local police agencies doesn’t exist but advocates being arrested on Saturday is proof that the reality is much different. From Newark to Atlantic City we must get ICE out of New Jersey.” – Cristian Moreno-Rodriguez, Executive Director of El Pueblo Unido

“The police have accused our fellow protesters of assault and obstructing justice after our action Saturday morning. But like so many others in our immigrant and Black and brown communities, they are the targets of assault and the victims of this Administration’s relentless, racist assault on human rights and justice. Like other law-enforcement agencies across New Jersey that have unlawfully profiled and unjustly arrested immigrant-rights advocates for exercising their Constitutional rights, the Atlantic City Police deserve to be condemned for their actions.”- Anthony Diaz, Executive Director for the Newark Water Coalition

“We stand with our brothers and sisters Diana Chaparro, Jose Salazar, Cristian Moreno-Rodriguez, Keli Smith, Anthony Diaz. We defend their right to peacefully gather and speak and condemn this assault. We condemn the ongoing terrorizing of our communities by ICE agents working with local police. Our state and cities must not be complicit in the violence and cruelty carried out by la migra and its collaborators. Stop the collaboration. Get ICE out of New Jersey.”- Ana Paola Pazmino, Executive Director of Resistencia en Acción NJ

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ICE out of NJ is a coalition of local grassroots workers’ rights & immigrant rights organizations working to end collaboration between New Jersey Law Enforcement & Federal Immigration Enforcement, & to ultimately drive ICE out of New Jersey