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Those arrested were part of a group that held an overnight vigil across from the jail aimed at stopping the deportation of Marvin Jerezano Peña.
Peña has been arrested by police in Red Bank and had a federal deportation hearing scheduled Tuesday in Newark, they said.
Trespassing protestors prevented vehicles from entering and leaving the sally port used to shuttle inmates and detainees in and out of the lockup in Hackensack, Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton said.
At one point, demonstrators sat down in front of an Immigration Customs Enforcement vehicle to prevent it from leaving the jail, the sheriff said Tuesday.
The protestors “refused numerous request to disperse and subsequently were placed under arrest,” he said.
James Larkin, 22, of Pound Ridge, NY, was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, Cureton said.
He and 13 others were charged with rioting and failing to disperse, criminal trespassing and obstruction, among other counts, the sheriff said.
Four are from New Jersey, seven from Brooklyn, one from Westchester and two from California (names below).
“The alleged video recording of a protestor being assaulted by an officer is being reviewed by the BCSO Professional Standards Unit,” Cureton added.
A group calling itself the New Santuary Coalition called for more demonstrations to protest the arrests, as well as for "all other folks detained by ICE at Bergen, Essex, and Hudson facilities and across the country."
"Bring water, snacks, phone chargers, masks, and a TENT if you have one etc.," the group said in a statement Tuesday.
"Mr Peña is a father, son, and resident of Red Bank, at imminent risk for deportation after being targeted and entrapped by ICE, in collusion with the Red Bank, New Jersey court system," the statement read.
(Immigration issues are handled by federal courts. Detainees are kept in county jails and federal facilities. Municipal courts don’t deal with immigration matters.)
In addition to Larkin, those arrested were identified as:
- Niko Sanaeria-John, 25, of Teaneck;
- Vanessa Reina, 24, of Bergenfield;
- Justin Pine, 24, of Garfield;
- Sydney Territo, 22, of Maplewood;
- Zachary Clarence, 28, of Menlo Park, CA:
- Sophie Drunkman-Feldstein, 23, of San Francisco, CA;
The rest are all from Brooklyn:
- Max Head, 26;
- Elizabeth Mealey, 29;
- Teresa Shen, 30;
- Elizabeth Dunn, 25;
- Sergio Uzurin, 35;
- Kelly Schaffer, 34;
- Jennifer Hansen, 29.
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