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Also taken for treatment to Hackensack University Medical Center was the driver of the private security van that was transporting the ICE detainees to the Bergen County Jail, authorities said.
So were two ICE agents on board and the driver of the car who police said caused the crash, Detective Capt. Thomas Salcedo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.
The Ford van carrying the detainees had the green light as it headed north on South River Street, approaching the Moonachie Road intersection, just before 6:30 p.m.,
The Teaneck driver of a Ford station wagon headed south then made a sudden left turn into the entrance of the Shop-Rite plaza and was struck by the van, he said.
A second car exiting the lot was then struck by the Teaneck man’s car, Salcedo said.
A squadron of sheriff’s officers and Hackensack police raced to the scene, and the street was immediately blocked off, county Sheriff Michael Saudino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT last night.
“We had to be sure no one was going anywhere,” he said.
Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino
“Because of protocol, the doors to the van couldn’t be opened until more ICE agents got there,” Saudino said. “As soon as that happened, all six were taken to HUMC.
“All of them reported some pain,” he said. “Some were bleeding from the mouth.
“The front end of the van was banged up pretty good,” he said.
Bergen’s jail is one of five facilities in the state that house federally-detained immigrants under contract with ICE. They are segregated in two cell blocks from other criminal inmates but otherwise share the facilities.
The most that Bergen County can hold under the arrangement is 194.
Records show the jail, which gets $110 a day per detainee, received a little over $4.6 million for the service last year.
Some are brought from other facilities, or have been taken into custody, pending deportation hearings. Most, Saudino said, are transported by private security companies that contract with ICE.
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