Mayor Ras J. Baraka signed an executive order restricting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from using city-owned property, facilities or resources for unconstitutional civil immigration enforcement actions.
The signing took place last night at the City’s 38th Annual Sing in Praise of King event dedicated to honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The executive order outlines key prohibitions that ban the staging of ICE operations on city property, and entering city buildings without a legitimate government purpose or necessary judicial warrant or judicial order. The order also requires city employees to report to their department director any observed unconstitutional wrongdoing by ICE agents within city limits. Department directors are to enter information reported on the State portal established for that purpose by Governor Mikie Sherrill. It further strengthens a 2017 executive order establishing Newark as a Welcoming City with language that prohibits its police division from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in any form whatsoever.
Before introducing the evening’s keynote speaker, acclaimed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Mayor Baraka explained why this executive order was so relevant to the City of Newark. In a city built by and home to immigrants, he noted that there would be no 14th Amendment to the Constitution and due process were it not for enslaved ancestors of Newark’s Black Americans.
“This executive order says that ICE cannot use our space to stage operations to promote the catching and detaining of other human beings – because no human being is illegal. We’re not slave catchers,” Mayor Baraka said.
Also signing the order was City Corporation Counsel Kenyatta Stewart.
“We are in line with the Governor’s executive order and we go a step further to encourage employees who find themselves in the middle of an ICE operation, to observe from a safe distance and then report the incident to their department director, who in turn will enter it into the state’s portal.”
The executive order took effect immediately upon signing.
For a copy of the Executive Order, click
here.
To view the Mayor’s remarks from the Sing in Praise of King event, including the signing of the Executive Order, click
here.
