A high school student sitting outside a North Bergen cafe before school was approached by ICE agents around 7 a.m. on Monday, prompting a bystander walking her dog to intervene, according to video shared by Estamos Unidos NJ and reported by the student and a witness. The encounter, captured on an Instagram video, shows agents questioning the teen as a woman filming the exchange tells one agent, “Leave him alone, he’s a minor! Leave him alone!”
The agent responded by warning the woman to leave and threatening her with arrest for obstruction, telling her, “Get out of here, get that dog out of here too: you’re gonna have a real bad day,” according to Hudson County View. Separately, Univision 41 reported that the student was waiting outside the barbershop for a friend when agents in two black vehicles approached him and asked if he was American, with a resident named Gloria stepping in during her morning dog walk.
U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez called the incident “completely unacceptable,” saying ICE stopped and questioned students on their way to school in North Bergen and that the incident should be condemned by every elected official. “ICE has no business targeting schools or stopping and questioning children,” he said, per the same report. His office has set up a request-assistance form at menendez.house.gov and a phone line for families seeking help or know-your-rights guidance.
School Board Launches Investigation
The North Bergen Board of Education is investigating the incident, while the township's mayor and board of commissioners said legal action is on the table, including potentially denying ICE access to school buildings without a warrant. That threat tracks with guidance the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General issued in June under the state's Safe Communities Act, which instructs public school districts to deny federal civil immigration agents entry into non-public areas unless they present a judge-signed warrant.
North Bergen's five commissioners, including Mayor Nick Sacco, said the ongoing presence of masked ICE agents is causing widespread fear and outrage among residents, and that they are monitoring the situation closely. They acknowledged, however, that local government has extremely limited authority over federal law enforcement actions. The commissioners called on ICE to cease operations in Hudson County and stop what they described as terrorizing communities, vowing to remain vigilant to keep North Bergen safe for everyone.
A Township in Political Transition
The condemnation lands amid a leadership handoff in North Bergen. Sacco is not seeking re-election in May, and township records show he announced his retirement effective October 28, endorsing Parks and Public Property Commissioner Hugo Cabrera to succeed him as the township's first Hispanic mayor. Sacco and Cabrera previously joined together in June to denounce an earlier ICE operation in North Bergen that led to the detention of a local woman's mother and two sons, according to Hudson TV. The board of commissioners also criticized the possibility that the FBI would stop investigating ICE assault cases, a concern raised in July.
New Jersey Assemblyman Larry Wainstein, who represents District 33, said the issue felt personal to him as the son of an immigrant who calls North Bergen home. “No child should fear walking to class and no parent should worry whether their child will return home safely,” Wainstein said, adding that federal agents targeting students create fear where there should be safety. Wainstein, himself the son of immigrants from South America and a parent, said North Bergen is a working-class town built by immigrant families and that children deserve to attend school without being treated as suspects because of where they live or look.
State Law Collides With Federal Enforcement
The confrontation underscores a widening gap between New Jersey's immigrant-protection statutes and shifting federal enforcement policy. The Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration rescinded long-standing guidelines on January 20, 2025, that had restricted ICE agents from conducting civil immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as K-12 schools, churches, and hospitals, according to the National Immigration Law Center. In response, New Jersey enacted the Safe Communities Act and, in March, Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation statutorily codifying the state's Immigrant Trust Directive, making New Jersey the 10th state to legally bar state, county, and local police from participating in federal civil immigration enforcement, as Hoodline reported.
Local police in North Bergen have no role in federal immigration operations under that directive, but they also have no power to stop agents from acting on public streets or sidewalks. Under the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe, the Equal Protection Clause guarantees all children in the United States access to free public K-12 education regardless of immigration status, a precedent elected officials have invoked in arguing against ICE activity near schools.
The North Bergen incident follows a similar episode in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where an ICE enforcement operation near an elementary school triggered a shelter-in-place order and drew swift municipal condemnation under the state's sensitive-location laws. In North Bergen, where Census Bureau estimates show 71.4% of the township's roughly 61,250 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino and 52.1% are foreign-born, the encounter has stirred outsized alarm in a community where Spanish is the primary language spoken in more than 79,000 households across northern Hudson County, according to Data USA's analysis of Census figures. Advocacy groups including Estamos Unidos NJ have moved quickly to circulate know-your-rights materials in Spanish in the incident's aftermath.
