Statement of Hilary Persky to Trenton City Council
319 E. State St.
Trenton, New Jersey
October 21, 2025

Like so many here, I have watched the Trenton Police, during an ICE raid in August, establish a perimeter around ICE agents. We’re told this was to maintain public safety, because ICE had a battering ram, but no warrant, ready to break in–with no warrant. And a police perimeter.

Folks from Resistencia were also there, the same folks that Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman praised for doing the right thing: trying to alert immigrants not to open their doors, to be careful, asking questions of agents who were trying to detain people–in this case without a warrant. Speaking loudly and clearly, because detaining people without a warrant is illegal. In fact, a member of Resistencia was arrested by the Trenton Police for telling people their rights. An officer accused her of being a violent activist.

A different occasion: I listened to an office tell Resistencia, very loudly, that if they did anything illegal, he’d “put them in a cage.” I ask again: is telling people their rights, loudly and clearly, illegal?

And another occasion: I watched an officer wander in and out of a house from which a woman had been detained. Later I learned that ICE had called the police for assistance. We don’t really know what happened, but we’d like to. We’d like to better understand what police “not interfering with federal officers” looks like. It seems important, since ICE is in Trenton all the time.

I therefore ask, with many others here, that the Trenton City Council conduct a full investigation into how the Trenton Police may be not be interfering with federal law enforcement. Because to us it looks like something different.