Trump voter stunned as husband detained by ICE at Newark Airport

✈️ A Bayonne couple says ICE detained the Moroccan-born husband at Newark Airport, triggering a months-long ordeal.

💰 Thousands have been raised for legal fees as the man fights a years-old deportation order.

🏢 The case continues as ICE plans a new detention facility in NJ, sparking political backlash.

BAYONNE — A New Jersey woman has been getting help from friends and the community after ICE descended on them at Newark Airport and detained her Moroccan-born husband, keeping him locked up without conviction or criminal charge for two months.

As a three-time voter for Donald Trump, Sandra Hafraoui tells NJ.com she now has a different reaction to the president’s immigration policy after her husband’s nightmare ordeal and current house arrest.

“You said you were going after the worst of the worst, but instead you ruined our life,” Hafraoui said in the report.

The Hafraouis have received thousands in donations to help pay their ongoing legal expenses.

U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, D-N.J., who helped keep pressure on federal officials, tells New Jersey 101.5 that “Mr. Hafraoui’s case is part of a significant influx of non-criminal ICE detentions that our office has dealt with since the Trump Administration began. ICE’s own data shows that 73% of those being held in detention are not criminals.”

ICE arrest at Newark Airport leads to detention in multiple states

Abdellatif Hafraoui was first held at Delaney Hall in Newark, but then flown out of state to Louisiana and Arizona.

The 60-year-old was ordered by federal agents to get onto a plane to Morocco, the country he left at the age of 22 to move to the United States.

When he refused to board the plane, Hafraoui was held in solitary confinement for 10 days, according to paperwork shown to NJ.com.

The Moroccan native was among the victims of an attorney convicted of scamming immigrants trying to navigate the legal system of staying in the United States. Earl Seth David failed to notify his client of a scheduled immigration court hearing, which is when a deportation order was issued.

David was sentenced in 2013 to five years in prison for ripping off immigrants and submitting fake paperwork on their behalf.

Hafraoui continued renewing work authorizations and, after getting married, filed the paperwork to obtain a Green Card. But the deportation order was still “ on the books” that ICE eventually moved to carry out.

“On August 11, Sandra and Latif were boarding a plane to Florida for a vacation they had saved months to afford when they were suddenly swarmed by plainclothes ICE agents. Latif was taken away, and officers refused to tell them his charges or whether he would see a judge,” according to a GoFundMe campaign organized by Sandra to help with their expenses.

The Hafraouis have described the treatment of federal officers during detainment as “terrible.”

“Threats and bullying from ICE agents, and very little food, water, or access to showers. A few times, he was even deprived of sleep and brought to the airport, almost forced onto a plane,” Sandra Hafraoui said in the online fundraiser. “Between September 25 and October 1, he was completely missing from the system. Sandra had no idea where he was or why he hadn’t called.”

“He was moved several times, and I think that’s a purposeful decision this administration has made—to make it hard to track individuals and for attorneys to have access to their clients,” Menendez, D-N.J., told NJ.com, about his help in getting Hafraoui back in New Jersey.

Since his release on a $15,000 bond, Abdellatif Hafraoui has been restricted from returning to work and has remained under electronic monitoring.

“In my visits to Delaney Hall and Elizabeth Detention Center, I have met with mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters who have been taken away from their families and our communities. That is in direct contradiction to what the President said on the campaign trail when he repeatedly told the American people that he would only be going after violent criminals," Congressman Menendez also said to New Jersey 101.5 in a written statement on Tuesday.

"When U.S. citizens and veterans are being apprehended by this Administration, it should be clear to all Americans that no one is safe in Trump’s America. We will continue to tell the story of what’s happening across the country and fighting back against these injustices,” he added.

Morris County ICE detention center controversy grows

Details of the Hafraouis’ challenges with their jarring detention experience have been publicized as New Jersey now is faced with a second ICE detention facility planned in Morris County.

The Morris County facility appears to be one of 16 “processing sites” secured to lock up as many as 1,500 people up to seven days at a time, according to federal documents shared with the governor of New Hampshire, the site of another new ICE jail.

With a surge of 12,000 new ICE officers, the department’s Detention Reengineering Initiative also involves eight new “large-scale detention centers,” incarcerating up to 10,000 detainees for as many as 60 days.

ICE plans to activate all these facilities by Nov. 30 at an estimated total cost of $38.3 billion.

That funding was cleared last summer, as part of $170 billion for immigration enforcement that the Republican-controlled Congress passed in July.

11 ways New Jersey is making it harder for ICE to operate

With 12,000 additional officers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to ramp up detention efforts this year. In New Jersey, proposed measures have been rolled out at the local, county, state and federal levels. Here's a look at what supporters have proposed as safeguards against unconstitutional actions — and what critics call hindrances to immigration enforcement.

Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt

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