Family, attorneys and advocates say immigration officers falsely took 21-year-old German Nieto-Cruz during an early morning raid on Tuesday in New Brunswick. They say Nieto-Cruz has a valid paperwork to remain in the country legally. Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Immigration agents, with guns drawn, pushed in a door and flooded into a Lawrence Street home where 21-year-old German Nieto-Cruz and his family live early Tuesday morning, according to the family that lives there.
Family members say they were looking for someone named "Rodriguez."
Family members and advocate Jorge Torres stand near a back door which they say immigration officers kicked-in to enter the home and falsely take 21-year-old German Nieto-Cruz on Tuesday. (Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) After 30 minutes of questions and searches, they handcuffed and carried away Nieto-Cruz, a New Brunswick High School graduate, employee at a local tire shop and an authorized resident who has been in the U.S. since he was 3 years old, according to Oscar Barbosa, his attorney.
The reason he was detained, "initial reports indicate that he was in a gang," said Alvin Phillips, an ICE spokesman. "His DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status is being verified."
Surveillance video obtained by NJ Advance Media from a neighbor shows five officers around the property at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday. At around 6:40 a.m. three are shown with a handcuffed Nieto-Cruz.
Now, days later, family, attorneys and immigration advocates are scrambling to get Nieto-Cruz released from ICE custody.
They said the situation shows the callousness of planned raids announced Monday by federal immigration officials to find and deport families that fled violence in Central America in the spring/summer of 2014 and have since lost their cases to stay in the country.
Immigration activists said they believe the raids are happening in the state, and agents are detaining people without cause like Nieto-Cruz who have a right to be here.
"We want to tell ICE that we will keep denouncing these raids," said Jorge Torres, an advocate with Unidad Latina en Accion NJ, at the family's home on Saturday. "They are terrorizing our Dreamers and our families and it's totally unacceptable in New Jersey." DACA recipients are sometimes referred to as dreamers.
ICE officials said Thursday immigration raids under the new initiative have not taken place here.
"There have been no raids in New Jersey, no doors have been kicked down," Phillips said.
But at a rally denouncing the national raids in Newark on Thursday, advocates said they don't believe officials because of incidents like the one in which Nieto-Cruz was taken.
"It's true and it happened," said Nieto-Cruz's sister-in-law Maria, who was also home at the time. "They should not deny it because raids are happening in New Jersey."
Nieto-Cruz's mother Emma, who declined to give her last name, said ICE officers knocked on a back porch door demanding someone by the name of "Rodriguez."
Officers pushed in the wooden door, and placed Nieto-Cruz's his brother and his 14-year-old niece face down on the living room floor. As the teenager started to panic, her father tried to console her but an agent allegedly stopped him by pressing a boot to his face, family members said.
In the end, the officers took Nieto-Cruz, who had tried to talk to them throughout the situation.
Barbosa said his client has no prior criminal record, and that agents may have suspected him of gang activity because of his religious tattoos.
"We don't have a clear reason why he is being held," said Barbosa.
He said the DACA application for Nieto-Cruz, who was born in Mexico, was renewed through 2017. DACA allows those who were brought into the country as a child, and meet certain guidelines, to remain in the country without fear of deportation and to obtain a work permit for two years. DACA does not grant a path to citizenship.
Barbosa visited Nieto-Cruz at the Essex County Jail where he is being held and said his client doesn't understand why he is there if hasn't never committed a crime.
"Our priority," he said, "is getting him [Nieto-Cruz] out."
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
