Immigration agents pushed through the back door of El Oaxaqueño, a family-owned Oaxacan restaurant, bakery and supermarket in downtown Lakewood, on June 24 and detained 18 people in roughly an hour, including six of the business's own workers. The raid at the 2nd Street storefront has become one of the starkest local examples of a nationwide surge in ICE arrests that has left immigrant families across New Jersey rearranging their daily lives to avoid encounters with agents.
The Lakewood operation was detailed in reporting by The New York Times, which found that ICE detained 10 people inside El Oaxaqueño itself, including the six workers, as part of the broader sweep that totaled 18 detentions that day. Among those swept up was Bernarda Hernandez, one of 17 other people without legal status arrested alongside her in about an hour, according to the Times. Arturo Garcia, connected to the business, told the paper that ICE did not present a warrant before entering.
The Department of Homeland Security offered a different account of what drew agents to the scene, saying ICE went to the parking lot based on a reliable tip about a person charged with theft and forgery, per the department's statement to the Times. ICE also said some of the 18 people detained that day had prior charges for trespassing, obstruction of law enforcement and traffic offenses, according to the agency's own account. The Times reported separately that some of the detainees were collateral arrests of bystanders without legal status, per ICE's own statement — a category distinct from the specific tip DHS cited.
A Worker Detained Without a Warrant or Deportation Order
Fermin Velez was arrested at El Oaxaqueño without a deportation order or arrest warrant, the Times reported, and was later released from detention with help from a lawyer. The restaurant's owners helped secure the release of most of their workers who had been detained, according to the same reporting. Vicky Santiago, connected to the business, vowed to stand up for her workers, the Times noted.
Legal experts say the entry itself raises constitutional questions. Under Fourth Amendment standards, ICE administrative warrants — Forms I-200 and I-205, issued by executive immigration officers rather than judges — do not authorize agents to enter private, non-public commercial spaces without voluntary consent or a judge-signed judicial warrant, according to the Native American Rights Fund. Employers have the right to inspect warrants and restrict agents from employee-only areas under that same guidance, a distinction that matters for businesses like El Oaxaqueño that combine public storefronts with back-of-house workspaces.
A Surge That Dwarfs Last Year's Totals
The Lakewood raid landed amid what the Trump administration has described as a surge in immigration arrests, with ICE arresting roughly 850 to 950 people monthly in New Jersey from February through May before that figure jumped past 2,100 in July, per the Times' reporting. By comparison, ICE's Newark field office made 2,959 total arrests in all of 2024, according to the New Jersey Monitor — a full year's tally now eclipsed in a matter of months. New York saw more than 1,500 arrests in July alone, the Times found, while agents ordered to make 2,000 arrests per day nationwide have instead arrested immigrants at bus stops, construction sites and gas stations across the state, and detained entire crews traveling to landscaping jobs.
Trump officials have emphasized that the surge focuses on criminals and people with existing deportation orders, while also maintaining that anyone in the country illegally may be apprehended — a tension the administration has not resolved publicly. The administration has also promised to avoid large raids and ordered a more targeted, less visible approach, even as the Times found ICE continued to arrest people unlawfully present in the country regardless of that stated shift. Nationally, ICE set a new administration record for monthly arrests in July by expanding community enforcement tactics, though daily totals still fell short of the White House's 2,000-arrest target, according to News From The States. Data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse in June found that more than 70% of federal immigration detainees nationwide have no criminal convictions, as reported by WHYY.
Ripple Effects Through Lakewood's Immigrant Community
Lakewood, an Ocean County township with a population exceeding 135,000 where Hispanic or Latino residents make up about 13.1% of the population and foreign-born residents about 8.5%, per U.S. Census Bureau estimates, has felt the raid's aftershocks well beyond El Oaxaqueño's doors. According to U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Lakewood Township's population estimate was 143,765 on July 1, 2025. Lakewood businesses have experienced declining sales amid the crackdown, the Times reported, and immigrant families have deferred large parties for weddings and quinceañeras. Moises Mendez organized protests after witnessing people being chased and detained, and his family now owes $25,000 in storefront rent, according to the Times' reporting. Lakewood teenagers have organized frequent protests against the raids as well.
Other local businesses have changed how they operate day to day. El Mercado's owners began driving workers to and from the store after a Honduran employee was detained; that employee was deported shortly after being detained in November 2025, the Times found. Immigration attorney Reuben Kerben told the paper he has received hundreds of calls since June from relatives, employers and others seeking help with ICE detentions. Stephen Sigmund said ICE operations in New Jersey do not make the state safer, according to the same reporting.
Sent to a Facility With Its Own Troubled Record
ICE sent detainees from the Lakewood raid to immigration detention centers including Delaney Hall, the 1,000-bed Newark facility reactivated under a 15-year, $1 billion contract that private prison operator GEO Group secured with ICE in February 2025 — a deal Hoodline covered when it was signed. The facility generates over $60 million in annualized revenue in its first full year of operations, according to GEO Group's own release. Delaney Hall has drawn scrutiny before: a June 2025 uprising in one of its housing units allowed four detainees to escape through a hole in the wall, prompting temporary transfers of hundreds of detainees out of state, as reported by NJ Spotlight News.
More recently, New Jersey's Attorney General and Department of Health sued GEO Group in June after state health inspectors were barred from entering Delaney Hall to inspect conditions following detainee hunger strikes and protests, per the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. That legal fight sits alongside a broader state-federal standoff: Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation in March codifying New Jersey's 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive into law, making the state the 10th to bar local police from partnering with ICE on civil immigration enforcement, according to Bolts Mag. That directive bars local officers from asking about citizenship status or holding people on ICE detainer requests without a court order, meaning Lakewood police had no legal role in the raid at El Oaxaqueño.
